Regarding Privacy (San Antonio, Post, Anton: real estate, how much, buying a house)

[3dogsinall]

Hello, I hope someone can help me. I was removing my name from all agencies that may display my name out there. I came across my property here in City-Data in the Property valuations section. I am ok with my property out there but I do want my named removed. I do not want myself displayed for the whole world to know where I live. There's no opt-out button or contact info to get someone to help me.
How do I get myself removed?

This is an example of how it is displayed:

//www.city-data.com/harris-coun...s-Drive-2.html

[cheryjohns]

I don't know how you would do that but I don't know if it would do any good. The same info is available on the appraisal district's site and can be pulled up by anyone.

[chris_ut]

Property ownership is of public record so you can never really remove it completely.

[mtgmike]

Ive seen people list themselves on HCAD as "Current Owner".

[elnina]

I think that only certain people can ask to be removed from public listing. I know an undercover cop who did it, but it was job related...

http://publicrecords.onlinesearches....ublic-records/

We here at the Free Public Records Directory are sometimes contacted about removing personal information from public records. It seems a good idea to cover this idea on a broader basis.
Neither our site, nor any other directory of public links, has the ability to remove information from public record files. Public records are generated in numerous ways – from buying a house, registering to vote, having a phone listing, to filing business records. These records are generated and then stored in a number of places – county auditor offices, recorders offices, secretary of state files, directories and many other places, including, of course, on the internet. A number of states and agencies are working to limit access to, or remove altogether, personal information, such as social security numbers, from these records. The records themselves, however, are public. Documents such as deeds, liens, and court files have always been public; it is the advent of the internet that has generated the ability to search these records from anywhere that has made people so concerned. What used to involve a trip to the courthouse or to a county office now often requires just a few minutes at the computer.
For documents to not be made public requires legislative authority. No one company can make the decision to remove records from public view and any company that tells you otherwise is wrong.

[crone]

Several of my over 65 years old neighbors who get senior exemption had them put "current owner" so nobody would know their ages. It was easy to do.

[elnina]

If you knew up front that you wanted to protect your privacy and keep your personal information and financial details private, you would have set up a TRUST to take title to your real estate.

With your property held in TRUST on your behalf, no one would be able to tell that you owned a particular piece of real estate. They would not know how much you paid for it. They would not be able to see all the publicly recorded documents relating to your property.

All those documents would still be publicly available. But they would refer to the local bank where you established your Trust. None of the documents would refer to you. You'd be completely anonymous.

BUT:
You might have discovered that all this information about you is available already. If this is the case, then you can't undo what's already been done.
You COULD transfer your property into a TRUST now. But all the other documents that have your name on them in the public databases would still be there. Your name would still be searchable and still tell the tale of your assets and other business.

About the only way to make it all go away would be to sell your current property, set up a trust to use in the future, and go buy a new home under the Trust's protection. And even then, your personal information about your NEW home would be hidden, but the trail of publicly recorded information would still exist for your old homes.

how can I remove my name from public records so that my name , address etc is no longer easy to acces on line? - Trulia Voices

[LizzySWW]

About 2 years ago, we had several properties changed out of our names to "current owner" with HCAD. Now they have the option on their site, I *think* it's available to everyone.

[elnina]

Yes, you can remove it from the Internet, but this is still accessible as a Public record
here is the application:
http://www.hcad.org/pdf/forms/GTA-IAD-016.pdf
http://www.hcad.org/pdf/forms/fill/GTA-IAD-016_fill.pdf

According to the Public Information Act, the public has a right to access and/or copy your property tax information including yourname. Since the Act does not require a governmental body to provide public access to the Internet, the Harris County AppraisalDistrict may remove your name from the information posted on its website at www.hcad.org upon your written request. After yousubmit this completed form to the Harris County Appraisal District, your name will be replaced with "CURRENT OWNER" as the
account owner posted on that website. This service is subject to change according to changes in state or federal law.
YOUR NAME WILL ONLY BE REMOVED FROM THE INFORMATION POSTED ON THE HARRIS COUNTY APPRAISALDISTRICT WEBSITE AT WWW.HCAD.ORG AND WILL NOT BE REMOVED FROM INFORMATION OTHERWISE PROVIDEDTO THE PUBLIC, INCLUDING INFORMATION PROVIDED IN ELECTRONIC FORM PURSUANT TO THE PUBLIC
INFORMATION ACT.

[elnina]

Other cities handle it differently. E.g. San Antonio:

Confidentiality of home addresses of a peace officer, a county jailer, a security officer, an employee of Texas Department of Criminal Justice, a victim of family violence, an officer or employee of a community supervision and corrections department, a federal judge and
a state judge. (only)
Under Section 25.025, Tax Code, if you are a peace officer, county jailer, commissioned security officer, employee of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, a victim of family violence, an officer or employee of a community supervision and corrections department, a federal judge or a state judge, you may request that information in the appraisal records identifying your home address be restricted from public access.
By completing and submitting this form to the appraisal district, you are requesting the confidentiality of information identifying your home address. If you want to rescind this confidentiality request, you must do so in writing to the appraisal district.
http://bcad.org/PDFs/Request_for_Con...iality2010.pdf