Official documents are becoming available to the public at a faster rate, but not fast enough for some real estate deals.
By NORA KOCH
Published January 19, 2004
The Pinellas County real estate community is still grumbling about delays in getting access to property records at the courthouse.
One home buyer accidentally ended up with two mortgages.
Title companies are trusting sellers to sign affidavits promising there are no liens on their homes.
Quick turnaround on sales is tough to get because public records can't be used to verify the original purchase.
The office of the Clerk of the Pinellas County Court is running two weeks behind making deeds, mortgages and other official records available to the public.
That's better than December's monthlong delay. But it's not any easier for title companies, Realtors, attorneys and others who rely on those records.
The clerk's office hopes that its new computer system will bring that delay down to just one day by the end of the month.
"Our goal is for people to see (a record) as soon as it comes in and we have indexed it - a 24-hour turnaround," said Miriam Irizarry, chief deputy in the clerk's office. "And that's where we think we'll be in a couple of weeks."
Since interest rates dropped about three years ago, the clerk's office has been backlogged with updating records related to property deeds, delaying computerized public access to the records. The clerk's office recorded more than 548,000 documents with 2.3-million pages in the past year alone.
That backlog swelled last month when the office implemented a new computer system that officials chose to help them deal with the influx. Despite a rough transition period and some glitches, the new $850,000 system that was installed on Dec. 8 has already helped them begin to dig out, Irizarry said.
With the old system, the office could process about a thousand records a day. The new, expanded system can put through about 2,500 a day, Irizarry said.
County employees have worked overtime to chip away at the delay in accessing public records. Today the public can view records from transactions made on Dec. 28, Irizarry said.
That's still not easing problems for the real estate community.
Kevin Hussy, president of Stewart Title of Pinellas in St. Petersburg, must trust sellers to be honest about whether their properties have liens. Unable to access records, he said he asks sellers to sign affidavits certifying their properties are clear. "What it really does is incredibly increases our liability and our own exposure," Hussy said.
Hussy also has seen a few nightmare situations. One elderly man, he said, inadvertently got two mortgages. He applied for one online but didn't think he completed the application. He applied for another loan and closed with Stewart. Soon after, he discovered the online application had been approved.
When the clerk's records are current, recorded documents would have shown the man had the first loan and the second would have been dropped, Hussy said.
The man now has just one mortgage but is stuck paying closing costs on both.
It's also been a wrench in the business of Brian Gelb, general manager of Florida New Business Report. Gelb's company provides a weekly list of real estate action to about 60 subscribers in Pinellas County. With that information unavailable for several weeks, some of those companies have asked for refunds.
"Potentially our customers' sales will decrease over this period of time," Gelb said. Some of the clients require the information to market a product, like insurance or home alarm systems, specifically to new homeowners.
For now, Gelb is working with subscribers to give credits for information not received. And Hussy, hoping for a quick resolution, said he is crossing his fingers.
