Thursday, November 26, 2020

New Limits on Building Access

Due to rising infection rates, the Trial Court seeks to substantially curtail the number of people entering courthouses. Consequently, beginning on Friday, November 27 and extending at least until Friday, December 4, 2020, those delivering documents and plans to the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds for recording will be required to place the items to be recorded in the Drop-Box that is just inside the entrance to the Lowell Justice Center. 

After dropping off your documents, please call us at 978-322-9000 to tell us so we may go out and retrieve them. 

As soon as documents are recorded and scanned, they are available on the registry website for viewing, printing, and download.  

Members of the public who drop off documents for recording may email us at lowelldeeds@comcast.net afterwards with the name and address on the documents and we will email a PDF copy of the recorded document to them. 

Anyone seeking a copy of their deed, plan, or other document, should call the registry at 978-322-9000 or email us and we will assist you over the phone or by email. 

Finally, any documents being dropped off for recording should be accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope so that we may return the original documents to you AND a check payable to Registry of Deeds in the proper amount for the recording fee. 


Thursday, November 19, 2020

Emergency Shutdown Aftermath

 At 12:30 pm on Tuesday, November 17, 2020, a Court Officer notified me that Lowell Justice Center (home of the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds) would close that day at 2 pm and would remain closed until Thursday, November 19, 2020, at 8:30 am. The reason? A person working inside the building on Monday had tested positive for Covid-19.

Here's what the Trial Court issued on its MACourtClosings Twitter account:

The Lowell Justice Center is closed temporarily for disinfecting and will open on Thursday, Nov. 19. A Dept. of Mental Health clinician, who was at the courthouse on 11/16 & spent time in District Court & the lock-up, has tested positive for COVID-19.

At the Registry, we recorded all the documents that had arrived by mail that day, put a notice on our website, and changed the audio greeting on our phone system to one that explained when and why we were closed. At 2 pm we departed. 

Despite the office being closed to the public, we were able to continue processing electronic recordings on Tuesday afternoon and all day Wednesday.

This morning, the building reopened as usual and normal operations resumed.