News & Insights

Tideland searches are very important in real estate transactions to uncover if the State of New Jersey has claim to all or a portion of the property. A recent story done by ABC7 Eyewitness News in New York illustrates the need for a tideland search. Click here to read/view the ABC7 news story.

Many of our title plants are 30 years or older!

Work smarter, faster and save money! Once only a present owner tool, the majority of our title plants are now capable of executing full 30-year searches and higher percentages of two-owner searches than ever before. Our automated title plants can give you the power to complete County Searches yourself - right from your own desktop ... virtually anytime, anywhere! Or have us do the work for you as the plants also allow us to perform searches and pull copies of deeds and mortgages.

Our title plant counties and years of depth include:

• Ocean County: 33
• Hunterdon County: 32
• Monmouth County: 32
• Somerset County: 32
• Warren County: 31
• Atlantic County: 30
• Burlington County: 30
• Camden County: 30
• Morris County: 30
• Sussex County: 30
• Hudson County: 27
• Passaic County:¹ 15
• Gloucester County:² 14

Remember the title plants are open even when the records rooms are closed. In this competitive market, get the edge on your competition by providing County Searches even when the courts are closed! Call us today at (800) 792-8888.

¹ Plant recordings from 2001 forward; Judgment records dating to 1993.
² Plant recordings from 2002 forward; Judgment records dating to 1993.

November 20, 2020.

That's the day Governor Murphy signed Daniel's Law (P.L.2020, c.125), which altered the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) — as well as other statutes — to prohibit government records custodians from disclosing home addresses of judicial officers, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers. While still supporting protection for these public servants, shortly thereafter, the title community began asking some questions about the impact to searching real property records.

A few years later, many of those questions have been answered but some are works in progress.

Moving Forward:
Much has occurred, however, since that 2020 Fall day and the good news is that before long the wonder and unanswered questions will be a thing of the past.

Recognizing the need to establish a bit of a framework to manage the requirements of Daniel's Law and to successfully achieve the protection the legislation promises, Governor Murphy signed P.L.2021, c.24 into law, amending the law and extending its effective date to December 10, 2021. This move ultimately led to the December 2, 2021 introduction of P.L.2021 c.371 which established the Office of Information Privacy (OIP) within the Department of Community Affairs. That same piece of legislation also instituted January 12, 2023 as the official date of compliance, giving OIP the time needed to meet its mission: to develop the guidelines, policies, procedures and general rules required to facilitate the implementation of Daniel's Law.

That same amendment also amplified the need to address the concerns of Title Producers and Title Searchers who require access to unredacted records in order to successfully manage the transfer of title. To that end, the legislation carved out Title Producers and defined a specific class of organizations — Title Search Business Entities (TSBE) — entitled to receive complete records. Additionally, Section 4a of the law indicates that a Title Search Business Entity, “means any person or entity organized under the laws of this state or another state for the primary purpose of determining the existence of any lien, lawsuit, lease, easement, mortgage or other encumbrance or restriction, or ownership interest, on any property and regularly conducts business with any title insurance company or title insurance agent …”

Section 4b goes on to detail that any “title search business entity conducting business in this State shall register with and be subject to regulation by the Department of Banking and Insurance (DOBI). The business entities must also register with the Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services (DORES) in the Department of the Treasury, or county clerk, as appropriate.”

Under the new law, TSBE's also fall under the regulatory purview of the NJ Department of Banking and Insurance (DOBI). While additional regulations may result from this change, initially DOBI will serve as where TSBE's can be identified to allow for access to unredacted records to facilitate title searching.

So, signing the legislation into law was just the first step. What has occurred thereafter served to provide OIP and many government agencies an opportunity to map out the methods by which Covered Persons can apply for protection while also establishing a method by which Record Custodians can identify redactors responsible for masking the appropriate information. With all of that in line, the focus would then become identifying/registering the title search business entities approved for complete access.

New Director Adds Clarity
Led by Director Christine Campbell, the OIP mobilized quickly and prioritized outlining a plan for building a secure online application portal (www.danielslaw.nj.gov) so that Covered and Authorized Persons — active and retired judicial officers, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers and their immediate families seeking protection under Daniel's Law could formally request their records be redacted. That portal launched on July 12, 2022, well in advance of the date of compliance. Director Campbell and her office also engaged multiple State, County, and Municipal government agencies in order to help each prepare for the demands of the law.

The law maintains that government agencies must redact residential data from public-facing websites and paper records “in their control” for Covered Persons who have been approved for redaction by OIP. And who handles said redactions? Once an agency has identified a redactor, that individual must register with the OIP, also through a secure online portal (www.danielslawredact.nj.gov) designed and managed by the office.

The Takeaway?
Only records attached to Covered Persons approved by OIP — rather than all persons, or all records — shall be redacted and those redactions must only be handled by a registered redactor. This process is facilitated by a Redaction Notice delivered by the OIP direct to the Agency's redactor, and that redactor has 30 days to comply. This is a process that OIP has instituted, and the respective agencies are utilizing today.

That the Director focused on a message centered on redacting only records attached to Covered Persons was a bit of a relief; when the law was first introduced, Charles Jones had some concern that entire record sets would be compromised/removed rather than individual records. However, meeting the demands of the law with surgical redactions provides the protection the law outlines without compromising all title research in the process. The realization that most records will remain untouched significantly altered the possible impact as the only “lawful” redactions are those approved by OIP.

Nowhere in the law is there a suggestion to remove all records. Instead, what exists is a carefully constructed registration and vetting process for Covered Persons, a specific channel for communicating and executing upon the required redactions and a method for those approved for access to view complete records.

In short, that's how it all works. Do questions remain? Certainly. But those answers will come as the final components are put into place and the processes of Daniel's Law become more common, including DOBI's registration portal, which is currently under construction. That site will allow TSBE's the chance to qualify for access to unredacted records while also providing Records Custodians a method for verifying that a TSBE has been approved for access.

What's Next?
Beyond that, there are some other items that only practical experience will help crystallize. Such as:

• Will TSBE's be validated by DOBI?
  • What will be required to be identified as a TSBE?
• How will records custodians handle the various requirements in order to provide records to the TSBEs?
  • Will two sets of records be maintained?
• How will redacted records be managed?
  • Strict removals?
  • False Addresses?
  • Aliases?
• How will a title searcher be made aware of a potential redacted record that may affect the property in question?
• How will unredacted records be made available to qualified TSBE's?
• What is the process for 'unredacting' a record when appropriate?

There is plenty more to learn, but the path that has been created will allow us all to reach those answers, through practical experience and further regulatory efforts to yield consistency. So far, the NJLTA Legislative Committee has remained in contact with the Director of OIP and DOBI to learn as much as possible. And, we have yet to encounter a circumstance where we haven't been able to acquire the record, and information we need. That's thanks to the thoughtful approach taken thus far and the framework that has been established. Complexity connected to the law is part of the landscape now, but we're confident we'll continue to work through the nuances successfully.

Stay tuned!