January 22

WHITE PLAINS, NY: “As the real estate market in Westchester County gains momentum, it is critically important that real estate professionals have timely access to the resources they need,” began Westchester County Clerk Timothy C. Idoni. “And while hundreds of thousands of documents our office holds are already available online, our customers have asked that we increase online accessibility to mortgages from the 1950s.” A grant from the New York State Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund (LGRMIF) in the amount of $11,499 will provide partial funding to have all mortgages recorded in the Office of the Westchester County Clerk during the 1950s scanned.

The scanning of over 600,000 pages of mortgages will be completed by White Plains based eDocNY, a subsidiary of Westchester Arc. The grant award allows the Office of the Westchester County Clerk to continue its relationship with Westchester Arc which provides employment opportunities to individuals with developmental disabilities.

The grant award will eliminate the delay for the customer as well as the costs associated with locating and delivering the mortgage books for the county. Currently, if a title searcher needs to review a mortgage from the 1950's, the searcher must fill out a request form which is transmitted by County Clerk staff to an offsite Records Center. The staff at the Records Center must then search for the book containing the mortgage and deliver it to the White Plains office. As deliveries are made three days a week, the requestor must return on another day to view the document.

The Office of the Westchester County Clerk, which is located at 110 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in White Plains, is open between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays.  For more information, call 995-3080 or visit our website at www.westchesterclerk.com.