Was in a Westchester NY town this morning to look for copies of surveys in a subdivision that was never officially monumented - a topic for another thread. The Assessor has a file of surveys from the original surveyor, used to get the CO when the homes were first built. They will give you copies, but charge $10 each to copy a legal size map.
I'm thinking that is about $100 to get all the maps I need, when the pleasant clerk tells me if I have an Iphone, I can copy all the maps for free. No iphone, but a quick trip back to the car for my digital camera and 15 minutes later I was all set.
After all the stories I hear about County Clerks and Towns forbidding the scanning or photographing of maps and deeds, this was a pleasant surprise.
Ken
I have yet to see one that won't let you take pictures of the documents.
Legal size paper must be expensive up there. 🙂
Copies here are 50 cents a sheet regardless of size.
$10 a copy is pretty much the norm. Most maps are 36x48 or larger. Ulster county charges $5 per deed unless you pay $50 a month then it's only 50 cents a copy. Dutchess is $10 even if you print them on your own machine. I think Putnam is the same.
I try to explain to people about the lack of monuments in Westchester and they don't believe me. Most subdivisions are 100-200 years old (some older) and were never monumented or if they were there is no trace of originals. There is almost no trace of anything original in southern Westchester. Even most of the maps don't show anything. Many surveyors in the area won't stake corners because every time they do they get sued by people with more money than we could imagine (most of Westchester is multi-million dollar homes).
Tom
These public records are to be available to the public at a reasonable charge. What you describe is unreasonable.
I don't think anyone can stop you from taking pictures of publicly available documents. I do it all the time. I can save tons of money in NY apparently. Paper copies here in Cambria Co. PA are only 50 cents. We have a great GIS system but NO deeds will EVER be available online. Apparently, there is too much classified info printed on them. SS#s and phone numbers etc.
There are counties in Iowa that won't allow a camera in the room with the documents. Unless that is a relatively recent state-wide rule, it is only the decision of a few county officials. Some counties have the last decade or two available on-line and others (even some with GIS) don't. The copying charge is usually reasonable, though.
I did a lot of research in Los Angeles back in the '80's in the 'vault'. They had microfich machines then. Cost was always going up for prints. Plus the parking fees.
Now most everything is on a GIS system and can get on-line the tract and Parcel maps etc. Guess they figured out that they could save a few salaries by utilizing some tech.
Story of our lives...
In Louisiana,
The Clerk of Court office is unfunded by the taxpayer. They operate based on charging for filing fees and for copying fees. They have no other source of income. Yes, it's public information, but they need to eat, too.
That's the way it is in Louisiana.
wow, one thing the Florida counties got right is scanning ALL documents to PDF, available online for free. I can download all plats, deeds, etc. right from my office. We don't have a recording rule for surveys in the State, though.
In Louisiana,
What happened to those records destroyed by Katrina?
:-S
In Louisiana,
Microfilm stored offsite. One Courthouse (Plaquemines) burned, then was flooded from Katrina. Microfilm stored offsite saved the day ... both times.
Georgia is
Doing something similar. The Georgia State Superior Court Clerks Cooperative Authority has a website that all deeds and plats recorded since 2002 (I believe) are supposed to be placed. It is not free though. A monthly fee (was $9.95) and a per page fee ($0.25 I believe) for printed documents. I always printed to a file, saved the print file in the project file, and printed from that to the appropriate sized document.
Andy
