Expect Unexpected Registry Closures

If you go the the website of the Berkshire Middle Registry of Deeds in Pittsfield today, this is what you see:

The Berkshire Middle District Registry of Deeds is temporarily closed due to a COVID-19 exposure.

We will reopen on Wednesday, April 15, 2020. Please check our website or Facebook for any additional updates.

We cannot receive any mail or walk-in customers. We cannot register Land Court documents until we reopen on the above-stated date.

We can Electronic Record Only.

As I understand it, an employee of a non-registry of deeds office within the courthouse where the registry is located has developed symptoms consistent with Covid-19. That prompted the Trial Court (the operator of the building) to immediately close the building, in this case, for 72 hours, for cleaning and disinfecting. 

Early in the shutdown, something similar occured at the Edward Brooke Courthouse in Boston, the home of the Suffolk Registry of Deeds. That caused the courthouse and the registry to close for five days.

So please be aware that when there is a diagnosis of a possible Covid-19 infection of an employee, the Trial Court’s standard operating procedure is (wisely and understandably) to close the entire building down for some period of time. 

If this were to happen at the Lowell Justice Center, the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds would continue to process e-filed documents and to respond to emails and telephone calls, but we would be unable to receive mail, deliveries or dropped-off documents. We would provide notice of our changed circumstances on the registry website (www.lowelldeeds.com) and on this blog.