Here is what you will not find in Nassau County this morning:

• Lis pendens are not indexed in the new system
• All three major eRecording companies are no longer accepting documents for Nassau County
• You won't find a County Clerk (or her staff)

I called the Clerk a few minutes ago. Understandably she and her entire staff are in a meeting. One hopes they are working to address these issues.

Members have called to say additional computers have been connect to the old system and there are computers running both systems to enable checking the completeness of the recorded data.

The eRecordng companies say they will resume eRecording in Nassau AFTER they have completed their independent testing of the system integrity.

It would be wrong to say Clerk O'Connell and her staff are doing nothing.  I cannot believe they are happy about this and I am certain they want things fixed and running smoothly.

In my message, I requested additional staff be put on to accept walk-in recordings and I urged them to communicate the status on a regular basis.  That would help diminish the fear and concern borne of uncertainty.

To Members - please note the Title Section is meeting to consider remedies.  I will report on the progress of that initiative as best as I am able.

Members can add comments. Non-members can email comments for posting to rgt@nyslta.org AND rcapone@nyslta.org.

On September 30, the Nassau County Clerk’s computerized real property index was scheduled for an upgrade and transition to an online system.  The change-over experienced massive failure, resulting in the disruption of examining records.

The Nassau County Clerk has not responded to multiple calls and emails requesting information and comment, as of 3:45 PM Oct 2, 2015.

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Certain Underwriters have notified their agents that all closing transactions must be cleared by the legal department until further notice.

The following report is compiled from verbal accounts provided by examiners and agents familiar with the situation. 

THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION HAS NOT BEEN INDEPENDENTLY VERIFIED BY NYSLTA.

As part of the conversion, eight computers were removed from the public computer bank.

On Thursday Oct 1 , three print-capable computers were available to the public to access the old system.  Examiners were restricted to a 15 minute session.

On Friday, October 2, four more computers were added to view the old system but these newly added machines were not connected to printers.

Access to the old system is to be maintained until the new system is fully functional.

The Clerk has announced no plans to computerize records prior to 1992.

The new system is designed to cover 1992-current date. It was discovered that data from July 1 – September 30, 2015 was not found. On-site techs stated this should be fixed by next week.

The new system was also found to have gaps and omissions on the data prior to July 1, 2015, making this system unreliable.

Examiners in Mineola reported the technicians were helpful and professional, talking to Examiners and taking note of problems.

When the new system is operational it will be accessed online without a fee, however it will provide recording information such as page count and dates. To get document images, users download the document in its entirely at the rate of $2/page.

This report will be updated as information is available.

NOTE – IF YOU HAVE FIRST HAND INFORMATION ABOUT THE SITUATION IN MINEOLA, PLEASE POST A COMMENT.

COMMENTS SHOULD HAVE A BASIS IN FACT AND NOT DISPARAGE ANY INDIVIDUAL OR ORGANIZATION.  

KEEP IT CLASSY.

If you are a licensee or sub-licensee looking for title agent CE  - click here or use the top navigation on this page and click CALENDAR & EVENTS 

Continuing Education, also know as CE, is a fact of life for physicians, CPAs, Financial Planners, and virtually every licensed professional.  However, CE is new to title agents in New York State.  

Many of us are very familiar with CLE, the continuing legal education required for attorneys and you may think CE is similar to CLE. But you would be wrong.

The DFS has been managing continuing education for health & medical, property & casualty insurance agents for years and that is the system title agents now must conform to.

The DFS has provided CE information for agents here:

http://www.dfs.ny.gov/insurance/abindx.htm

This is what you need to remember:

- You need 15 CE credits to renew your license

- The Provider, Instructor and Course must be approved by the DFS

- When you complete a course, the Provider will report your credits and license number to DFS 

- The DFS will apply the credits to every license registered to that exact name.

- The Provider will also give you a certificate. Keep the certificate in the event all the credits you earned are not reported at the time of license renewal.

One more thing - the NYSLTA is building a catalog of CE courses to be offered and taken online. However online courses require an exam before credit can be issued.

The Education Committee is also going to offer the popular CORE TITLE SERVICE courses in 2016. But that is another story.

See pages 7-10 of September 2, 2015 issue of the NYS Register where the Regulation 206 rule making is published.

Here is link to download a PDF of the 9-2-2015 Register:

http://docs.dos.ny.gov/info/register/2015/september2/pdf/rulemaking.pdf

The document is also available in the Licensing & Regulation File Library; go to RESOURCES>COMPLIANCE SUPPORT in the site's main navigation.

NYSLTA issued a news release today announcing the election of the 2015-2016 Officers.  Click the attached file to see the complete news release.

Quoting the release:

"Newly elected president, Marianne Mathieu, of Fidelity National Title, previously served as president-elect,  working closely on the Executive Committee with outgoing president Rafael Castellanos, of Expert Title Insurance Agency. ...

Joining Mathieu and Castellanos as officers are Bill Collins, of Frontier Abstract and Research as president-elect and John Martinico of  Security Title Guarantee Corporation of Baltimore as Treasurer.  The title section will be chaired by Marvin Bagwell of Old Republic Title Insurance Company with Mary Jane Keyse of Fidelity National Title Group as Vice-chair.  The abstracter and agent section chair is Richard Giliotti of The Judicial Title Insurance Company; vice-chair is DeAnna Stancanelli of National Granite Title Insurance Agency. "