How Electronic Recording Affects the Pre-Recording Run Down

 The following question was posted as a comment to a recent blog post:

How does running the daily index work with electronic recordings? If I were standing in line waiting to record, how would I know if something had come on record affecting my property since the last time I had checked the index?

Here is my answer:

When you do a walk in recording, you first do a rundown at a public access computer and then get in line. While you're in line, if something containing the name of your grantor suddenly goes on record from any source (mail, another walk in, or electronic recording), a warning pops up on the recording screen when the clerk enters that same name from your document.  The clerk tells you about it and you either proceed or pull back the recording.  That system is not foolproof but that's the design and it seems to work pretty well.

When doing electronic recording, you do much the same thing, using our website (which is instantly updated with new recordings) to do your rundown and then pressing the “send” button on your electronic recording application.  That transmits the electronic recording to the registry where it is processed as quickly as possible.  A major difference between electronic and walk in recording is that with electronic recording, we currently don’t have the ability to communicate in real time with the person presenting the documents for recording.  While that “same name just entered” alert does function with electronic recording, since you’re not here for me to ask about it, our policy is to just proceed with the recording.  We considered automatically aborting any electronic recording any time the “same name” warning appeared but the reality is that 95% of the time that warning appears it’s something innocuous like a municipal lien certificate (the tax collector’s name triggers the alert) so automatically rejecting the transaction wouldn’t work.  Neither is us trying to decide on a case-by-case basis whether the “same name” thing should or should not cause the recording to be rejected.

In the beginning, this “rundown gap” was a major concern to us and to prospective users.  As we all gained experience with the system, we realized the initial concerns were overblown.  It’s still a risk but the harm is minimized by the customer doing a post-recording rundown before disbursing any funds (which is the recommended practice for any type of recording).  This is also an area in which technology may be of assistance.  Video conferencing is now widely available and inexpensive.  I have proposed establishing a video chat capability between the registry clerk handling the incoming electronic recording and the customer who submitted it.  Such a communications link would duplicate the walk in recording experience.  If we had questions about a recording, we could ask them of the customer in real time.  Similarly, if the customer had any special instructions, they could be shared with the clerk during the recording process.  Establishing this technology does not require replacement or our entire system or even an expensive upgrade.  All we would need is an iPad or similar device and a wireless connection to the internet (which we already have).

We began using electronic recording at Middlesex North in 2005 and have used it ever since with no difficulties worth mentioning.  Our volume has risen from 1,057 documents recorded electronically in 2005 to 25,251 recorded electronically in 2013 which accounted for 38% of all recordings that year.  It is a proven technology that works well and is a huge efficiency for the registry of deeds and for the users. 

Electronic Recording Roll-Out

We've used electronic recording here with great success since 2005.  Last summer we hit a high point of our volume when more than 38% of our recordings arrived electronically.  There was a slight decline in that percentage towards the end of the year that coincided with the drop in refinancings.  The most popular documents to be recorded electronically are mortgages and discharges so when the overall volume of those two documents declined, so did the percentage of electronic recordings.

The lull is probably good because in the next few months, all of the registries of deeds in Massachusetts that do not yet use electronic recording will be installing it. The goal is to have all active by the end of June 2014.  Once all registries make the service available, I suspect the number of customers using the technology will rise. 

February recording statistics

Sorry for the brief absence from blogging.  I'll try to be more consistent in the coming days.

February is always a slow month for recording activity, but this February was worse than usual.  The total number of documents recorded was down 38% from last February (5473 in 2013 vs 3382 in 2014).  Mortgages showed the biggest drop, plunging 60% from 1231 in 2013 to 493 in 2014.  Deeds slid too but not as much.  They dropped just 14%, from 451 in 2013 to 390 in 2014.  Foreclosure deeds were up slightly but not enough to be concerned (15 in Feb 2013 vs 17 in Feb 2014) but orders of notice were down 22% (32 in 2013 to 25 in 2014).

The slowdown in mortgages began back in September and has persisted into the new year.  Unfortunately, there are no signs that this trend will turn around soon. 

Closing early on Tues, Feb 18, 2014

Due to heavy snow, all courts in Lowell will close today at 3pm.  This includes the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds.  We will be open at 8:30 am tomorrow for normal operations.

Busiest days of 2013

The Middlesex North Registry of Deeds recorded 67,001 documents in 2013 which was 6% fewer than the 71,596 recorded in 2012.  Of the 2013 documents, 38% were recorded electronically which was an increase from the 34% rate of electronic recording in 2012.

What about individual days?  In terms of the number of documents recorded, here are the five busiest days of 2013:

1. June 28, 2013 (Friday) - 643 docs
2. April 16, 2013 (Tuesday) - 548 docs
3. July 1, 2013 (Monday) - 477 docs
4. May 31, 2013 (Friday) - 475 docs
5. September 30, 2013 (Monday) - 460 docs

Fore electronic recording, here are the five days with the highest number of documents recorded electronically (the percentage shown in parenthesis indicates the percentage of all documents recorded that day represented by the e-files).

1. June 28, 2013 (Friday) - 223 docs (35% of total for day)
2. April 16, 2013 (Tuesday) - 208 docs (38% of total for day)
3. February 11, 2013 (Monday) - 175 documents (58% of total for day)
4. January 28, 2013 (Monday) - 171 documents (38% of total for day)
5. July 1, 2013 (Monday) - 165 documents (35% of total for day)

Middlesex North Registry of Deeds closed today

Due to today's snowstorm, all courts in Massachusetts are closed today, February 5, 2014.  Since the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds is located within a courthouse, we will be closed too.  Here is the link to the Massachusetts Trial Court page with this announcement.

January recording statistics

Here are the numbers for major document types recorded in January 2014 compared to January 2013:

The number of deeds recorded in January 2014 was up 3% from January 2013, rising from 450 to 462.

The number of mortgages was down 59%, dropping from 1384 to 570.

The number of foreclosure deeds was down 47%, dropping from 19 to 10.

The number of orders of notice was down 81%, dropping from 74 to 14.

The overall number of documents recorded was down 35%, dropping from 6064 to 3919.

Recording Methods

There are three methods for recording documents available to customers.  They are walk-in recording, electronic recording, and mailed-in recording.  Recently we looked at the source of all documents recorded during three randomly selected weeks in the second half of 2013 to determine what percentage of documents arrived to us by which method.  We found that 42% of all documents were from walk-in customers, 36% came via e-file, and 22% came by mail, Fedex or UPS.

Registry Revenue

The registry of deeds collects revenue from a variety of sources.  Recording fees and the deed excise tax are the two big ones.  Tracking how those amounts change from year to year give an indication of how the real estate market is performing in this vicinity.  Here are the numbers from 2008 through 2013:

Recording Fees

2008 - $4,140,975
2009 - $4,914,845
2010 - $4,712,310
2011 - $4,287,200
2012 - $5,323,121
2013 - $5,131,680

Deed Excise Tax
2008 - $6,310,086
2009 - $5,139,387
2010 - $5,109,201
2011 - $4,631,891
2012 - $5,689,329
2013 - $7,232,687

Record Books

Even though we stopped making physical record books in 2001, we still keep track how many "books" we create each year.  In 2013, there were 1102 new books, each consisting of approximately 300 pages.  That adds 330,600 pages to our inventory.

By the end of 2013, we had 27,925 record books containing 9,590,900 pages.  Of those books, 15,482 are virtual books, meaning that they were created after 2001 and never existed in paper form.

Our first book technology was handwritten pages that were sewn together in large format books.  These began with the opening of this registry in 1855 and were used up until 1924.  This format accounted for 702 books.  In 1924, we switched to type written pages that used the same type of binding.  This method continued until 1949 and accounted for 1127 books.  Book pages were printed from microfilm beginning in 1949.  That method continued up until 1995 with the book format moving from the large format to the small white plastic covers.  In 1995, we began printing book pages from scanned images using the same plastic covers.  That continued until 2001 when we stopped printing altogether.

Besides these documents, we also have hundreds of thousands of pages of registered land documents and index pages.  I'll account for them in a future blog post. 

Joint ownership of real estate by unmarried couples

According to a story in today's Globe, married couples account for 62% of all homes that are jointly owned.  Unmarried couples account for nearly 8% of jointly owned homes.  The Globe story mentions some considerations for unmarried homeowners prior to purchasing real estate.

One obvious decision mentioned briefly in the story is the form of joint ownership.  Unmarried couples may hold real estate as joint tenants (which provides a right of survivorship) or as tenants in common (which would have no right of survivorship). 

The story wisely recommends that the co-owners draft a contract that clearly defines in advance such matters as how much each person is to contribute to the purchase, the mortgage payments, property taxes and upkeep.  Another thing to address is how any equity in the home would be split should the place be sold.  As we approach tax time, another item would be who takes how much of the mortgage interest and property tax payments as income tax deductions.  The story covers much else and is worth reading.

Where have all the mortgages gone?

The total number of documents we recorded in 2013 (67,001) was down 6% from the number recorded in 2012 (71,596).  A major factor in that change was a steep decline in the number of mortgages recorded.  For the entire year, mortgages were down 16% compared to 2012 but for the final quarter of 2013, the decline was much more dramatic.

In October 2013, mortgages were down 47% from October 2012; in November, the decline was 52%; and in December the decline was 49%.  The first two weeks of January suggests things could be getting even worse.  In the first two weeks of January 2013 we recorded 638 mortgages.  For the same period this January, we recorded only 251.  I won't calculate the percentage decrease but it would be a big one. 

Why the big drop?  There seem to be multiple factors.  The most important one is that interest rates went up by an amount that is relatively slight, but still might be enough to have a substantial impact.  Another factor is the new regulations on home lending imposed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.  Even though they are designed to protect consumers, when regulations are first implemented, it's almost inevitable that things will move slowly and that seems to be the case now.  The pending increase in flood insurance premiums is also a factor.  One banker cited all these items but added another event: last fall's shutdown of the Federal government.  This banker identified the shutdown as the start of the recent decline in mortgage activity.

Even in the best of times, the winter months are slow for real estate.  Hopefully this is just a seasonal lull and not the early stages of an extended period of stagnation in the home sales and refinancing markets.

Land Court & Condominiums, c.1972

I came across a memo dated December 8, 1972 from Margaret M. Daly, Recorder of the Land Court, to all Assistant Recorders of the Land Court (i.e., Registers of Deeds) explaining the process for handling condominiums in registered land.  Here's part of what the memo said:

1. All condominium documents are numbered in the usual way as registered documents.
2. The Registry thereupon issues a Master Condominium Certificate of Title, which he numbers with the prefix "C."  The first condominium in a district is C-1, the second C-2 and so on.  These certificates are kept each in a separate book together with all memoranda of unit ownership so that a Title Examiner will find all certificates and memoranda relating to any on one condominium in one book. . . .
3. The first deed out of each unit must, before registration, be approved by the Deputy Recorder of Chief Title Examiner.  It must have attached the plans required by Section 9, with the "as built" certification.
4. Upon the registration of a unit deed a Memorandum of Unit Ownership is issued by the local Registry District.  It is numbered with the prefix of the particular condominium and a serial number.  For example C1-1; C1-2 and so on.
5. An owners duplicate IS issued to the unit owner.  He can then convey, mortgage and so on just as any other owner.  For voluntary transactions, he must present his owners duplicate memorandum, in the event of loss or death, and so on.
6. Every document is noted on two encumbrance sheets. (1) The encumbrance sheet of the Master Certificate; and (2) The encumbrance sheet of the unit ownership memorandum to which it relates.

Things have certainly changed.  There is no more Owners Duplicate Certificate of Title.  Plus, the registered land certificate system in place when I arrived here did not have a separate book for each condominium.  Instead, there are three separate sets of books, two involving condominiums.  The "C" Certificate books hold only condominium master deed certificates.  The "U" Certificate books hold certificates of title for individual condominium units.  The third set of books contain all non-condominium certificates.  The C and U books contain the certificates in the order they are received and are not grouped by separate condo developments.

Certified copies

Earlier today a customer called to ask what were our requirements for a document to be considered a “certified copy.”  Was an original signature from the registry required? An original date? Or was the rubber inked stamp sufficient?

The Massachusetts Deed Indexing Standards state the following about the recording of certified copies:

7-2 CERTIFIED COPIES – HOW RECORDED

Copies certified by another registry of deeds, a court, or a governmental entity at the federal, state, county or municipal level may be recorded at the registry of deeds. If the certification appears on a

separate page, that page shall be treated as another page of the document (i.e., a single piece of paper that contains the printed document on one side and the certification on the other should be considered to be a two-page document).

Out own process for certifying documents is to use an inked rubber stamp that contains the following language:

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS
This is a true copy of an instrument recorded in MIDDLESEX NORTH DISTRICT REGISTRY OF DEEDS at the time and date noted on the first page thereof.

A true copy Attest            Richard P. Howe Jr., Register

We don’t add a date to the certification stamp nor do we add a raised seal or a ribbon.  It’s very minimalist.  The annotations we make to documents during the recording process have also been reduced.  Up until a decade ago, we used to place the book and page number on each page of a document.  Now, that recording information is only placed on the first page of the document.  Formerly, we used a rubber stamp to add “End of Document” at the end of document.  We no longer do that, either.  The main reason we have dispensed with these added annotations is efficiency.  With more documents and fewer employees, streamlining the recording process was essential to the continuation of prompt document processing.  As for the ability to authenticate that what purports to be a certified copy of a document is in fact the entire document as recorded, with all document images freely available online at any time, any questions that arise as to the completeness of one of our certified documents can be immediately answered with an internet connection.

Electronic recording in 2013

Electronic recording continues to be a big part of our operations although the percentage of documents recorded electronically dipped a bit towards the end of the year.  I believe this had more to do with a drastic slowdown in the refinancing market than it did with the viability of e-recording.  When I last checked, I found that 55% of all mortgages were recorded electronically so when the volume of that document type decreases, so does the overall rate of electronic recording.

Of the 66,690 documents recorded at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds in 2013, 25,251 (38%) were recorded electronically.  Here's the month-by-month breakdown of e-filing as a percentage of our overall recordings:

January - 41%
February - 40%
March - 40%
April - 39%
May -  39%
June - 35%
July - 40%
August - 37%
Sept - 38%
Oct - 35%
Nov - 34%
Dec - 34%

Breaking this down by monthly averages, we find that of the 5,558 documents recorded during a typical month, 2,104 were recorded electronically.  Of those efiles, 734 were discharges, 164 were deeds; 586 were mortgages; and 625 were in the other category.

Interuption of Service

It doesn't happen very often but occasionally the registry of deeds is forced to close early or to refrain from opening.  Such was the case last Thursday and Friday when a major winter storm hit the region. 

The best source of information remains the Trial Court website (www.mass.gov/courts) which is updated in a timely manner with news of court closings around the state.  This usually works for us because even though we are not part of the Trial Court, we are a tenant in one of their buildings so if they don't open the building, we can't open for business. 

Because it is possible (though unlikely) that the Court would remain open but the registry close, we should have a secondary means of notification.  The website is an obvious method, however, we can only change the content on the lowelldeeds.com site from here at the registry.  If the weather prevents us from getting here in a timely manner, it also prevents us from changing the website.  That's where this blog comes in.  I can update this blog from anywhere that has an internet connection including my phone.  The blog, therefore, seems like the best choice for the latest information on registry operations.  Today I updated the main page of www.lowelldeeds.com with the following notice:

For latest registry news including storm closings see LowellDeeds blog

So in the future, if you have questions about whether the registry of deeds will open and when, be sure to visit the LowellDeeds blog. 

Registry closed ALL DAY on Friday, January 3, 2014

Due to the ongoing winter storm, the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds will be closed all day on Friday, January 3, 2014.

Million dollar sales in 2013

We had 52 sales of more than $1 million in the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds District in 2013:

• Carlisle had 15
• Billerica had 11
• Lowell and Wilmington each had 9
• Chelmsford had 8
• Westford had 6
• Dracut and Tewksbury each had 3

The most expensive deed was $49,050,000 for property on Plank St in Billerica recorded in February.  Other $40 million dollar deeds included Old Boston Road in Tewksbury in August; Littleton Road in Westford in December; Concord Road in Billerica in December; and Bowden Street in Lowell in June.

The 15 million dollar deeds in Carlisle went from a high of $1,555,000 to a low of $1,025,000 and all appeared to be for single family homes.

Top Ten Registry events of 2013

Here are my choices for the top registry-related events of 2013. 

Top Ten Registry Events of 2013

The Registry of Deeds Modernization and Efficiency Commission which was created by Chapter 165 of the Acts of 2012 met numerous times throughout the year and completed its final report which will be submitted to the state legislature in January 2014.

The volume of documents processed by electronic recording reached 40% on several months and will account for 37% of all documents recorded in 2013.

The number of foreclosures in 2013 was down by more than 50% from 2012.  The number of deeds was up 15%.  The number of mortgages recorded for the year was down 8% but the mortgage numbers dropped substantially – by more than 50% per month – towards the end of the year signaling a near collapse of the refinancing market.

The Supreme Judicial Court issued a decision in HSBC Bank v Matt that interpreted the Service Members Civil Relief Act.  The first part of the holding ruled that the defendant in a claim under this Act may only raise his or her status as a member of the U.S. military in the case and other claims, such as the propriety of the foreclosure or of the mortgage are not properly raised in such a case.  The second part of the holding was that the plaintiff must be in possession of the mortgage sought to be foreclosed prior to filing suit under this act.

Attorney General Martha Coakley and her office continued to assist communities hit hard by foreclosures by offering a Distressed Properties Identification and Relocation Grant to gateway cities most affected by the real estate collapse.  The city of Lowell applied for and received a grant under this program.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau went into full operation and issued a number of new regulations related to disclosures and the paperwork requirements on consumer mortgages that will have a big impact on future home loans.

Due primarily to a large number of claims resulting from hurricanes and other major storms, the federal government has recalculated flood insurance premiums and redrawn flood maps, both of which will have a significant impact on those living in flood areas who have federally insured mortgages.  Many Lowell residents, including most condominium owners in downtown, will see substantial increases in their flood insurance premiums in the coming months.

The terrorist bombing of the Boston Marathon on Patriot’s Day had an indirect impact on everyone in the region although the Middlesex North Registry was not within the zone that was required to “shelter in place” during the search for the suspects.

In February, a snowfall of 22 inches forced the registry to close and led to a statewide ban on driving imposed by Governor Patrick.

On October 30, 2013, the Boston Red Sox defeated the St. Louis Cardinals to win the World Series for the third time in the past ten years.

Last week I wrote that I would post similar lists from years past.  I'll do that during the first few weeks of 2014.

Top Ten Registry Events of 2006

Continuing our walk down memory lane, here's what I posted back in December 2006 as the Top Ten Registry Events of that year:

10 Seven new registers of deeds will soon take office across the state in the following districts: Berkshire Middle, Berkshire South, Franklin, Worcester North, Essex North, Nantucket and Bristol North. With much registry-related policy now being established by the Massachusetts Registers of Deeds Association, a turnover of a full one-third of that organization’s membership (there are 21 registries in the Commonwealth) will have a major impact across the state.

9. On December 23, 2006, the LowellDeeds Blog celebrated its 3rd birthday, making it one of the oldest blogs of any type in the area.

8. Statistics became an item of greater interest at the registry this year. For example, early next week we will add a chart to our website that shows thirty years worth of recording data and associated information such as the prime rate and unemployment stats in an historical context.

7. The Middlesex South Satellite Office moved from the rear of the Superior Courthouse to former Record Hall in the front of the building.

6. The electronic images of all pre-1855 documents (the old “Middlesex South” books) were digitized and have now been added to the registry’s website where they can be retrieved by book and page number.

5. The marginal reference data capture project was completed. Employees went through every existing record book to locate all marginal references. These were then entered into a database that will soon be imported into the registry’s primary computer system. With these references captured electronically, the last reason to retain printed books on the shelves was eliminated.

4. Two thousand record books that were created during 1999, 2000 and 2001 were taken out of circulation and placed into storage to allow us to recapture more of the Record Hall for work space. (We stopped making paper books entirely in November 2001).

3. The informal partnership between the registry and MassGIS (the state’s online mapping agency) advanced with Middlesex North participating in GIS Day at the statehouse on November 16 and with both agencies making significant progress in our efforts to integrate our documents with MassGIS’s maps and overhead photos.

2. The slide in the real estate market continued with our overall volume of documents recorded down by 17% from the amount recorded last year. The number of foreclosure deeds recorded this year (165) was a 300% increase from last year, but still not close to our historic high of 761 in 1992.

1. To reduce the risk of identity theft, registry employees redacted thousands of social security numbers from previously recorded documents.

Top Ten of 2005

I created this blog on December 23, 2003 making yesterday the tenth birthday of the LowellDeeds blog.  Since December of 2005, I've published a Top Ten list of events of that year that had an impact on the registry.  Starting today I'll repost those Top Ten lists beginning with 2005:

As 2005 draws to a close, it’s time for us to review this year’s Top Ten registry events:

10. The procedures at our recording counter were revised, putting more of the responsibility for pre-recording quality control of documents on the customer through the use of a document checklist.

9. Concerns about identity theft and the security of sensitive personal information led the Registers of Deeds Association to establish a prohibition on the recording of documents that contain social security numbers. Thus far, this limitation does not apply to state and federal tax liens and releases.

8. Google Earth, Google Maps and other GIS applications became commonplace and irreplaceable as parts of everyday life. They offered a glimpse of the type of mapping/data integration that will become a core mission for registries of deeds during the next few years.

7. We established a type of free advertising section called “Our Customers” on our website. Real estate professionals with websites can request a short description of their businesses and links to their websites from a designated portion of www.lowelldeeds.com.

6. The total number of recorded land documents processed this year was slightly less than 88,000, a slight decrease from 2004 but further evidence that a slowdown in the real estate market is upon us.

5. The Registers of Deeds Association published a major revision to the Deed Indexing Standards of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to become effective January 1, 2006.

4. Besides turning two years old, the LowellDeeds Blog received an entirely new appearance in December that provides more functionality and permits greater reader involvement.

3. In the National Lumber case, the Massachusetts Appeals Court issued a decision of great significance to registries of deeds. While the Court did, in fact, literally interpret the registry of deeds statute (chapter 36), the interpretation was greatly at odds with the established and accepted practice. Many of the consequences of this case will not become fully apparent until well into 2005.

2. The Middlesex North Registry has devised a method of presenting pre-computer Grantor Indexes to the public as PDF documents on a multi-volume set of CDs. During the first quarter of 2006, all Grantor Indexes back into the 19th Century will be available in this format.

1. Electronic Recording became a daily event during 2005 with nearly 1,000 documents recorded in this manner. There are many details that must still be resolved, but the technology has proven to be useful and reliable.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Robo-Agents: Using drones to market real estate

Drones - remotely piloted aircraft - have been much in the news these past few years as weapons systems in the war on terror.  However, like most technology developed for the military, drones are increasingly being used for civilian purposes.  A story in today's New York Times explains how brokers handling multimillion dollar properties are now using remotely piloted drones to capture video footage that's included in slick marketing videos.  The story describes efforts to sell a house in Greenwich, Connecticut that included having the drone fly over the exterior of the house but then also fly within the interior of the home, capturing video all the time.  I don't think we'll be seeing drones used in Greater Lowell to help market homes anytime soon - those quoted in the NYT article say the cost and effort are only justified with multimillion dollar homes - but as the cost of the technology drops as it inevitably will, I suspect this technique will arrive in our vicinity sooner rather than later.

Documents recorded per year: 1990-2013

There are still six recording days left in 2013 but I was curious to see where our total number of documents recorded for this year compares to other years. Over that 24 year period, the high number came in 2003 with 146,956; the low number in 1990 with 51,820.  The average per year document total is 77,164.  On December 31 (or maybe on January 2, 2014), I'll do a post with the official end of the year numbers, but the 65,330 we have recorded to date will increase by about 1200 documents I would guess.

Here are the numbers from 1990 to present:

1990	51820
1991	52019
1992	76282
1993	83337
1994	71427
1995	60681
1996	67286
1997	70128
1998	93633
1999	89506
2000	71558
2001	97180
2002	115890
2003	146956
2004	96204
2005	87866
2006	72830
2007	66192
2008	56011
2009	65838
2010	63247
2011	59297
2012	71423
2013	65330

Holiday Schedule

With Christmas fast approaching, I wanted to remind everyone that we will be closed on both Christmas and New Years Day but we will be open on all other days including Christmas Eve and New Years Eve for our normal hours (8:30 am to 4:15 pm).

Although the forecast for the coming weekend calls for temperatures in the 50s plus some rain, we have had a couple snowy reminders that the official start of winter is almost upon us (it's Saturday).  We try to stay open despite adverse weather but sometimes conditions deteriorate so much that we are forced to close.  More often, the Trial Court decides to close the building and since we are their tenants, we must comply with their decision.  For a snowstorm that begins during the workday, call us at (978) 322-9000 if you have any weather-related questions.  For storms that hit overnight, the Trial Court website posts such information in a timely manner.

Registry of Deeds Modernization & Efficiency Commission

Chapter 165 of the Acts of 2012 created a Registry of Deeds Modernization and Efficiency Commission that consisted of representatives of the legislature, the governor, the secretary of state and the registries of deeds.  The commission met many times during 2013 including public hearings in Boston, Worcester and Springfield.  Earlier this week, the Commission completed its task of studying the Commonwealth's registries of deeds and made recommendations to the legislature.  The report will be delivered to several joint legislative committees (Election Laws, State Administration & Regulatory Oversight, and Ways & Means) before the end of this calendar year.  As soon as the report is formally presented to the legislature, it will also be made available to the general public.

Making Microfilm

Yesterday was a meeting of the Technology Subcommittee of the Registers of Deeds Association.  One of many items discussed was microfilm and the wisdom of continuing to create it.  Professional archivists are increasingly of the opinion that electronic images are stable and reliable enough to serve as the sole source of information storage and so the need for microfilm as a backup is a matter of some dispute. 

Current state law mandates the creation of microfilm so no one will be stopping its production unilaterally.  Still, it's prudent to assess our archival and backup needs from time to time and seek statutory amendments where applicable.

My own opinion is that we should continue making microfilm.  While I have much confidence in electronic images and am convinced that past problems of forward compatibility of storage mediums and formats are a past problem, I am still concerned that some nefarious virus could pose a threat to electronic images.  It's an extremely remote threat but the risk of harm that would result - a complete loss of all land ownership records - would be catastrophic.

While I do advocate the continued creation of microfilm, it might be done in a more efficient manner.  Rather than each registry have an expensive piece of equipment needed to shoot the film, why not centralize that process with the Secretary of State's office?  When we "shoot" microfilm in-house today, we do so from the scanned image of the document, not from the original document.  A duplicate copy of all of those images is already stored with the Secretary's office so there would be no additional infrastructure needs.  It would also be helpful if the microfilm shot in this manner could also be stored centrally at someplace like the State Archives rather than at commercial disaster recovery sites as we do now, a service that might be done more efficiently within state government.

The only decision made yesterday was to continue pursuing the centralized creation and storage of microfilm of recorded documents.  Ceasing the creation of microfilm might be a wise choice at some point in the future but we are not at that point yet.   

A crisis in rental housing?

Each Monday the Merrimack Valley Housing Court comes to the Lowell Superior Court for a session.  The check-in line at 8:30 am is always out the door but it seems longer now than at anytime before.  Thinking about that earlier this morning, a story in today's Globe about rising rental costs caught my attention.  At $1000 per month, Massachusetts has the fifth highest median monthly rent in the country behind Hawaii at $1300, Washington DC at $1180, California at $1140, and Maryland/New Jersey at $1100.  The collapse of the housing market and the large number of foreclosures over the past decade have contributed to a steep increase in rents as many who had owned houses lost them and are now forced to be tenants.  With shelters overflowing and a long wait for subsidized housing, this situation doesn't look like it will improve any time soon.

Electronic Recording Statistics for November

The decline in the number of refinancings has also dragged down our volume of electronic recording since the majority of mortgages are now recorded by that method.  In November 2013, we recorded a total of 4315 documents of which 1475 were done electronically.  This accounts for 34%.  For the year, the electronic recording percentage was regularly at 39% so this is a significant drop.  I don't believe that it represents a cutback by users on e-recording technology; it's just a reflection of the refinancing slump.  Since every new mortgage typically results in a discharge of an old one, that also cuts into the number of discharges being recorded.

Of the 1475 documents recorded electronically this month, 447 were discharges, 134 were deeds, 390 were mortgages and 503 were other types.  Our monthly averages for the first eleven months of 2013 show how much higher discharges and mortgages have been in other months.  From January through November 2013, the monthly average of discharges was 764, of deeds was 165, of mortgages was 601, and of other documents 634.