MOHAVE COUNTY – The Mohave County Assessor’s office earned a top honor in the 2024 Summit Awards, a statewide competition of county governments conducted by the Arizona Association of Counties meant to recognize innovative problem-solving at the county level.
The Mohave’s Address Protection Program, developed by the County Assessor’s office, was awarded a Summit Award in the County Administration, Finance, & Management category at the AACo Annual Conference last week. The project drew praise for its foresight in creating a mechanism for property owners to “lock” their taxpayer address so that only the owner can change their information.
“Research shows that a common element, indeed fraud was changing the address information at the assessor’s office,” said AACo Executive Director Jen Marson. “In order to help protect taxpayers, the Mohave Assessors Office responded to this research by creating a software solution available at a nominal cost to taxpayers that provides an additional level of security in the maintenance of the taxpayers address and ownership record.” Marson congratulated Assessor Jeanne Kentch and her team for successfully resolving the problem.
This program has been in place since 2022 and it allows taxpayers to opt-in using a notarized affidavit requesting that their address be locked. The locked address can only be changed with a subsequent notarized affidavit. This simple action creates multiple touch points to review if fraudulent action is taking place before the assessor’s office updates parcel records. The program is voluntary and available to all Mohave County property owners.
When the program first began the expected enrollment was 200 properties per year. It began in August of 2022 and by December of that year there were already 183 enrollees. In 2023 the number skyrocketed to 879 participants, and so far in 2024 there are 447 new enrollments. The Mohave County Assessor’s office saw a need in the community and took the steps necessary to provide a layer of security for property owners to help prevent deed fraud.
