Umatilla County has implemented electronic recording (e-recording) of documents such as deeds and mortgages through Simplifile, the nation’s largest e-recording service, providing faster, more cost-effective recording for the county and its customers.
According to Umatilla County Chief Records Officer Steve Churchill, the county decided to start e-recording to save money and to provide better customer service.
"My experience with e-recording through Simplifile has gone from one of being slightly hesitant at first to, ‘Why didn't we start this sooner?’" Churchill said. "I love receiving one electronic payment from Simplifile for all e-recordings submitted each day instead of having to process multiple customer checks. I also love being able to transmit a document back to a customer for correcting before it can be ‘accepted’ for recording. Before e-recording, it could literally take months for a previously submitted paper document to be corrected and re-submitted."
Title companies, banks, attorneys, lien filers and other document submitters will now be able to electronically prepare, scan, or upload documents and submit them to Umatilla County through Simplifile’s secure, online service for recording.
"There is no cost to the county as customers will pay a nominal fee to Simplifile as the submitter to record each document with us," Churchill said. "Eliminating the need to physically sort, route, and open incoming mail, count pages, receipt individual checks, apply labels, pull staples, scan, verify, re-staple and mail back has reduced the turnaround time for a document from one week to a matter of minutes. Time spent by records staff fielding calls and processing email requests to provide document numbers as proof of recording is also reduced as e-recording customers receive a recorded digital image of the document capable of being reproduced in paper form."
In 2014 Churchill’s office recorded 10,408 paper documents totaling more than 42,000 pages.
"I'm hopeful that we can achieve a 50/50 ratio for e-recording versus traditional paper recording by the end of this first year, and that the number only increases in the years ahead," Churchill added.
Umatilla County is the 16th county in Oregon to adopt Simplifile’s e-recording service. Nationwide, more than 1,180 recording jurisdictions e-record with Simplifile.
High-speed Internet access, a PC, and a scanner are the minimum requirements for customers to begin e-recording with Simplifile.
For more information about e-recording in Umatilla County, call 800-460-5657 or visit simplifile.com.
About Simplifile
Simplifile is the nation’s largest and fastest-growing e-recording service provider. Simplifile supports thousands of e-recording customers including title companies, banks, attorneys, lien filers, and other organizations that create and submit documents to more than 1,180 local, state, and federal government jurisdictions. Simplifile’s electronic document services save time and the expenses associated with traditional document submission methods. Simplifile is focused on building the industry’s largest and easiest-to-use e-recording service for organizations of all sizes. More information about Simplifile may be found at simplifile.com or by calling 800-460-5657.