Bugs in new computer software are keeping deed recordings from being available to people outside the office.
By CURTIS KRUEGER
Published December 25, 2003
ST. PETERSBURG - The Pinellas County Clerk's office is nearly a month behind in updating records related to property deeds, making it impossible for those outside the office to confirm through computerized public records that deeds have been recorded.
Although the deeds themselves are up to date, problems with a new computer system in the office have delayed completion of some of the related paperwork, Clerk Karleen DeBlaker said Wednesday.
"To the public right now it looks like, "What's the matter with that bunch down there?' " DeBlaker acknowledged. "When this is all implemented it should be very, very fast and a lot quicker. So it's a learning process."
The computer system was installed Dec. 8 to help the Clerk's Office handle the expanding volume of property records filings, but a string of bugs and kinks in the system have created delays rather than removing them.
The lack of public access to recorded deeds by computer has created a headache for people in real estate, such as Vincent Stona of Safety Harbor, whose business includes buying foreclosed properties and reselling them quickly.
Stona said he recently had a Dec. 19 closing, but his title company could not see records past Nov. 12 to confirm that the house did not have new liens placed against it. Fortunately, he said, "the title company knows me and they feel comfortable in the way I do business." The sale went through.
But it's a risky position for title companies, says Jennifer Lombardi, escrow officer for American National Title Services in Largo.
"We're basically closing on properties right now not knowing what's happening in the last month," she said.
Sam Morgan, director of operational services for the Clerk's Office, said the new software, called OnCore, is designed to help his office better process paperwork.
It recorded more than 548,000 documents with 2.3-million pages in the past year alone.
Morgan said the office has been inundated in recent years with new mortgages and other documents, because low interest rates have led thousands to sell houses and buy new ones, or refinance their homes.
"We just were not able to keep up with the tremendous amount of recordings of the past three years," Morgan said.
The new system was designed to help. It employs a sophisticated digital imaging system that, once fully operating, will allow workers to process deeds and other documents in the clerk's St. Petersburg, Clearwater and Palm Harbor offices. Now all documents are transferred to Clearwater for processing.
The new system should allow more people to record deeds while they wait, instead of dropping them off and having them mailed back to them.
Morgan said the system soon will be running smoothly, but he said the Clerk's Office has suffered from glitches that occur any time an organization switches to new software.
"The first couple days was just terrible . . . if it could go wrong, under Murphy's law, it did," Morgan said.
When people complained that they could not confirm that their deeds had been recorded, Morgan said, "We were able to tell them, no, it's actually recorded, it's just that you can't see the dad-gummed thing."
He said the staff will work Saturday to help reduce the backlog. He said he hopes the situation will be resolved in 30 days or less.
