The Property Records Industry Association has published a coronavirus/COVID-19 resource page for its members, including suggestions for communicating in a crisis and best practices for recording queue management.
It reminds members that recorders are essential to the U.S. economy, providing notice of interest in real property and proof of land ownership.
“As we face this health crisis, those of us in the property records industry are working together towards common goals of preserving the integrity of the land records and continuing to facilitate the important transfer of real estate across the country,” PRIA stated.
“Communication during a crisis is an important component of an overall continuity plan. It can ease the anxiety and questions from those people who are accustomed to interacting with your office on a regular basis, whether they are business partners or consumers. Your messaging should be easily accessible, immediate, focused, thorough and continually updated,” PRIA continued.
It suggested these communications include the status of office operations, the documents being processed, and the recording office’s website capabilities.
PRIA then listed the following best practices for recording queue management in times of stress, noting that not all of them may be applicable to every recording office:
- Recorders need to make available on their website entry screen exactly what their policies are and what information is available via their website and update it daily.
- Closing the office to public means all public, and recorders should put procedures in place for document dropoffs and other courier services, mail delivery and pickup.
- Allow the majority of staff to work remotely wherever possible.
- Consider swing or split shifts, as well as overnight and weekend hours for staff.
- As much as possible, process documents by the date-received order for all incoming submissions, including eRecording, mail courier services, and dropoffs. “If your office is still open to the general public, acknowledge that in-person documents may be recorded before other incoming documents. Try to minimize that situation by keeping in person document processing to 1-3 documents. Encourage document drop off instead.”
- Prepare stacks of document by date and time.
- Provide online/out-of-office search capabilities at least back to 1990 (30 years) for both indexes and document images. If you don’t yet have that capability, work to implement it promptly.
- Open eRecording avenues to all organized eRecording providers
- Find as many ways as possible to streamline your recording, indexing and archiving process. For example, you can wait to return documents by mail or pick up until the bulk of the backlog is eliminated, as long as you have the search capacity online. You should work with other county offices to ensure smooth operations for recording transfer documents.
It reminded recorders that “recording simply provides notice that a document exists; you and your staff are not the document or notary police. Use that adage to your advantage in the time of backlog stress. A document with errors is not your fault; a corrected document can be recorded referencing the incorrect document.”