MORGANTOWN — Monongalia County Clerk Carye Blaney said her office recently became the first in the state to begin electronically recording deeds and other land records.
Blaney told the Monongalia County Commission on Wednesday the first digital recordings were accepted by her office last week.
According to Blaney, the move to digital recording will likely save both record submitters and the county time and money by eliminating the need to mail, deliver and otherwise handle large bundles of documents.
“So large law firms, large mortgage companies that are now sending us large packets of mail to record these documents can now do that all online,” Blaney said. “They scan the documents. The documents come directly to our system. We review them just like we do a paper document. Then we index them, process them and the payment comes directly to us electronically.”
While the clerk’s office has thus far worked with vendor Simplifile, Blaney said there are multiple vendors that could be used. The vendors don’t charge the county, but receive payment directly from the person or business looking to submit documents for recording.
“Once Simplifile accepts the document it’s moved over to our portal. We review it and once we record it, Simplifile deposits the money we need into our records and deals with the submitter,” Blaney said. “We don’t have to worry about bounced checks. We don’t have to worry about not having the proper amount for the recording. All those issues are solved because it’s handled before it ever gets to us.”
She explained that the move to electronic recording has long been a goal of the clerk’s office.
“We’ve been working on this for quite some time. Most other states in the nation have been electronically recording, and have been for years. West Virginia has been a lone holdout, so we’ve really been working to get ourselves into a position to do that,” she said.
The clerk’s office, in conjunction with Simplifile, plans a large rollout of the system later this year.
In other county news, the commission:
Approved a resolution confirming an agreement with the West Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles for a $160,000 grant through the Governor’s Highway Safety Program.
Approved a letter of support for a federal grant application from the WVU College of Business and Economics for the purpose of creating a “business startup accelerator program.”
