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REAL ESTATE
AND
^) BUILDERS
NEW YORK, MAY 22, 1915
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I HOW REAL ESTATE RECORDS ARE KEPT I
The Early Libers Were Written in Dutch—Purpose of the â–
Register's Office—Changes and Improvements in 1914. |
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TO those not interested in real estate
the work done yearly at the office
of the Register of the County of New
York means little or nothing, but to
others it is of prime importance. Ac¬
curacy and speed are two essentials, and
that mistakes are almost unknown is due
to the system which has been evolved
from the one hundred and three years'
experience, since the recording office was
established.
Prior to 1812 the records affecting real
estate were kept by the County Clerk.
At that tinie the county was about one
hundred and fifty years old, and about
one hundred volumes were necessary to
keep the records. These were trans¬
ferred in 1812 to the care of the Register,
and the records, with the exception of a
few of the early libers, are now con¬
tinuous from 1654, during the Dutch re¬
gime, to the present day. It is interest¬
ing to note that some of the first libers
are written in the Dutch language.
Hon. John J. Hopper, the Register of
New York County, in his statement and
report showing the changes and im¬
provements made in the department dur¬
ing 1914, gives much valuable as well as
interesting information, covering as it
does the early history of the Register's
office down to the present time.
Records Written by Hand.
Until about 1898, the records were
written by hand in large volumes, each
book containing from 500 to 700 pages.
These libers would contain from two to
three hundred instruments, each of
which was copied out at length. In the
early days there were not many instru¬
ments, so those recorded were easily
located, but to-day there are upwards of
two million instruments, of various
kinds, on file. There are about one hun¬
dred thousand lots in New York County,
so that, on an average, there are about
twenty instruments which make up the
title to each lot. To find the particular
twenty instruments, out of the two mil¬
lion on record, is the object of title
^'searching" and so simply that search is
the purpose of indexing.
Each liber is separately indexed, by
placing the names in alphabetical order
in the back of the book. Later special
index books were supplied. The alpha¬
betical system continued until 1891, at
which time there were about one million
two hundred thousand instruments on
record. It has been estimated that not
less than four million separate name en¬
tries were indexed. The result of this
system was an enormous aggregation of
names under each letter.
600,000 Names in 1856,
In 1856 tbe indexes contained about
six hundred thousand names and an ef¬
fort was made to correct the evils result¬
ing from the cumbersome system in
vogue. A new alphabetical index was
arranged, in which the names for the en¬
tire period prior to 1856 were arranged
in exact directory order. This system
was a decided improvement over the one
in force up to that time, and shortened
the time required for searching titles.
The agitation for improved indexes
HON. JOHN J. HOPPER,
Register of New York County.
was actively renewed in 1885. At that
time about one million instruments were
on record and searching conditions were
almost intolerable. As a result a Com¬
mission was appointed and a measure
providing for the block system was
passed in 1889 and went into effect Janu¬
ary 1, 1891. The law was defective, in¬
asmuch as it did not provide for the re-
indexing of the great mass of instru¬
ments recorded prior to 1891. A re-in-,
dexing law was passed in 1892 and again
in 1893 but nothing was done until the
organization of the Reindexing Depart¬
ment in 1910.
When first organized the only duty of
the Register was to receive real property
instruments, record them "at length" and
index them. This is still the primary
duty of the Register, but in recent years
the responsibilities and duties of the of¬
fice have been greatly increased and
broadened. In addition to the current
recording and indexing, the Register
attends to the satisfaction of mortgages;
he receives chattel mortgages, of which
more than one hundred thousand are
filed and indexed annually; he collects
the mortgage tax, which amounts to
about $2,000,000 a year; he is also respon¬
sible for recopying and certifying old and
mutilated records, and also for the
locality reindexing of all old records.
The Register is also the Registrar o
titles under the Land Title Registration
Act, commonly called the Torrens Law.
Three Classes of Instruments.
Real property instruments are divided
into three main classes: (1) conveyances,
(2) mortgages, and (3) miscellaneous
papers. These three classes are each
given a separate series of filing numbers,
record and index books. Within each
classification are a variety of instru¬
ments. For example: In the convey¬
ance libers are placed deeds, leases, as¬
signments of leases, releases, party wall
agreements, trust agreements and sim¬
ilar instruments. The mortgage libers
contain mortgages. assignments of
mortgages, extension agreements, par¬
ticipation agreements and the like.
Among the miscellaneous papers are
found general trust mortgages, general
conveyances and releases of decedents'
estates, and other papers general in char¬
acter. During last year there were re¬
corded 12,138 conveyances, 12,163 mort¬
gages and 852 miscellaneous papers.
About one hundred papers are received
daily for record and to obtain the highest
economy of administration a routine has
been established so that each division
receives an entire day's work to handle.
The daily steps for the original instru¬
ments are as follows:
Division of the Work.
First Day. The instruments are taken
in and pass the notary clerk, the mort¬
gage tax, the receiving clerk, the cashier,
the tickler index and the bookkeeper.
Each instrument receives its serial num¬
ber and minute of record, and is ab¬
stracted, examined and located by block
and lot.
Second Day. Each instrument is copied
at length by typewriter in the record
libers and the liber and page are noted.
Third Day. The Examining Division
compares the typewritten record with
the original paper and corrects all errors.
Fourth Day. The Block Index Divi¬
sion completes and verifies the entries in
the block index, first written from the
abstract slips, which are then sent to the
Alphabetical Index Division for use in
preparing that index.
Fifth Day. The original papers are
sent to the Executive Office for the sig¬
nature and certificate of the Register.
They are entered in the delivery book
and delivered by mail, or otherwise, as
requested.
The routine of procedure has been so
worked out that there is hardly any vari¬
ation in actual operation. A person re¬
cording a paper knows that it will be re¬
turned to him at the end of the fifth day
without the necessity of making any
special request.
Mr. Hopper states that the systematic
handling of an entire day's work each
day and thus keeping the work up to
date does not add to the cost, but on the
contrary results in distinct saving.
Use of Typewriters.
The use of typewriters and of the
abstract method in indexing current in¬
struments and for checking accuracy was
begun early in 1914. Formerly both the
block index and the alphabetical index
were prepared in preliminary form in
"blotters." These were afterwards
copied in the permanent books. The use
of temporary blotters was discontinued
in 1914 and indexing is now made di¬
rectly into the final books. This system
resulted in reducing, by nearly one-half,
the staff engaged in preparing these two
indexes. The clerks so relieved were
assigned to other work.
The budget for 1914. which was pre¬
pared before Mr. Hopper went into of¬
fice, was $304,468.40. a considerable re¬
duction from 1913, due to the with¬
drawal of Bronx County, which was