Kentucky banks, Realtors tell county clerks to stay open in coronavirus crisis
A group of trade associations in banking, real estate and mortgages sent a letter this week to Gov. Andy Beshear calling for him to put guidelines in place for county clerk’s offices, saying that their closure halts essential services.
While some clerk’s offices have remained open or adjusted their operations, others have closed in an effort to help slow the spread of COVID-19.
Beshear said in a press conference Thursday that he’d been in contact with the Kentucky County Clerks Association and been told that the group was working with the associations that sent the letter to try to find a solution.
“The optimal way that this happens isn’t the governor saying ‘you do this but not this, and you do this but not this,’ but it’s the two groups together identifying the central needs and then coming to an arrangement where we can have as few people working in a building as possible, we can have no person to person contact, but the commerce, the thing that needs to get done can get done,” Beshear said.
The letter sent this week to Beshear’s office claims that the group of trade associations has seen multiple instances where county offices have restricted the ability to officially record real estate and vehicle transactions. The group argues that real estate, lending institutions, residential construction and automotive transfers are federally considered essential services during the outbreak.
The letter was signed by; the Kentucky Land Title Association, the Kentucky Bankers Association, the Kentucky Credit Union League, the Kentucky Automobile Dealers Association, Kentucky Realtors, the Bluegrass Community Bankers Association, the Mortgage Bankers Association of Kentucky and the Homebuilders Association of Kentucky.
“We are writing today to request your office issue guidance that would require County Clerks maintain minimal hours of operation,” the group said in the letter. “Kentucky citizens, title professionals, financial institutions, and automobile dealers rely on these county offices for access to the official record of all real property transactions and to record documents on sales transactions.”
Title examiners need access to county offices and courthouse records to search titles of properties so that closings and title transfers can proceed, according to the letter.
If county clerk’s offices are unable to open with minimal hours, the group asked Beshear to implement curbside service or alternative methods to allow for transactions to continue.
The Fayette County Clerk’s Office is among those that made the decision to shut down temporarily to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. But while the office will be closed to the public for the foreseeable future, work continues.
The clerk’s office handles land records, voting registration, marriage licenses, and vehicle registration and transfers.
The situation is evolving, but recording staff members are expected to come back to the office next week and vehicle employees will come in the week after that, said Fayette County Clerk Don Blevins Jr. The office closed March 26.
“The whole purpose of this is to flatten the curve,” Blevins said. “Our second priority is to keep the staff safe, the third priority is keeping the office lights on as much as possible as we go through this.”
The office has been arranging to have mail picked up during the closure, and plans to process the work that has built up as employees return, Blevins said.
The clerk’s office is working with banks and closing attorneys to make sure mortgages, business loans and refinancing will not be significantly interrupted by the closure, Blevins said. It is using the same method to deal with business loans, liens and deed issues.
Some county clerk’s offices are opening their deed and property record rooms to the public with social distancing precautions, but Blevins said he will not do that. Instead, he plans to implement a system where people can email requests to have copies of such documents sent to them.
There will be delays, but the office is working to adapt to methods that are safe during the outbreak, Blevins said. Employees at the clerk’s office cannot do their work from home and it would be impossible to implement social distancing if the office was open to the public, he said.
“Lost in all this discussion is that my employees are real people,” Blevins said. “I’m not going to put them at risk.”
Also of concern, if the election staff at the clerk’s office was exposed to COVID-19 and had to self-quarantine for two weeks it would be “catastrophic,” Blevins said.
Voter registration for the already postponed primary election can still be completed online or by mail in Fayette County, but the forms must be postmarked or delivered by 4 p.m. on May 26, Blevins said.
What will happen with the election itself is still up in the air.
“Everything from just running a normal election to canceling the primary has been put on the table as options to be discussed, no decision has been made yet,” Blevins said.
While the closures of county clerk’s offices may cause delays with some transactions, Blevins said that they could mark a “new normal” as the outbreak continues and offices are forced to temporarily close when workers come into contact with the virus and must self-quarantine.
For now in Fayette County, the office is still performing some transactions in an adapted way.
Those hoping to get a marriage license in Fayette County are being asked to make an appointment that will be held on April 9 with extra social distancing precautions.
One process that the office hasn’t yet figured out how to adapt is person-to-person vehicle transfers. Until those can resume, people are advised to hold on to their paperwork, Blevins said.
People who have driver’s licenses, vehicle registration or tags that are about to expire have been given a 90-day extension at the state level with late renewal fees waived, according to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.
This story was originally published April 3, 2020 at 12:08 PM.
