I was just in Vermont assisting on some research. It's the first time that I've ever worked there. I'm used to places that don't have all the records scanned, though I've never worked where you need to dismantle the deed books to copy each page. To make this slow process worse, they hit me with a $2/hr "vault fee", just for being there. Is this normal? I've never heard of that.
That seems out-and-out wacky. In a public office, they should only be charging you a fair rate for copying to cover for the copy machine and paper costs.
In Texas I have npt been to every county clerk's office, but some dont want you to take the book apart and make your own copies, and some you have to take the book apart and make your own copies. I feel most Surveyors and the people from the online research sites treat the deed records with respect, try not to rip the pages or get them out of order. Its the people who have never done research trying to prove their so and so family member never sold that land, that rip pages or even just take the page home without making a copy of it. Some of the books have way to many pages in them it takes two people to get them back together. I prefer a county employee to take the book apart and make the copies. I have never had to pay to be in the deed record room at any county.
Public records are nearly always accessible for costs incurred to copy. Unfortunately some places have to monitor anyone near the books. Going through older records back east it was easy to see why. Chunks of documents cut out for the autograph, pages missing, etc. It only takes a few idiots to make things more complicated than they should be.
Every town and city clerk's office I've visited in VT has an hourly vault fee, but it isn't always enforced. In my town, one can't really argue the town is gouging the people who access town records; the fee income only covers about 1/3 the cost of running the town clerk's office and the rest comes from the general fund.
Good points guys. The users of the vault are the ones helping pay for it's upkeep. Makes sense to me. It's like people using the roads helping keep them up.
Normal for all the towns I've worked in in VT. Luckily, I am usually working for the town so vault fees and copy charges are waived.
The fee is as provided for by Statute. Up to the Towns if they choose to collect it or not. Also $1/page fee for copies of "land records". And wrestling with the old books if half the fun. And don't forget to ask the Clerk if it's OK to disassemble the book yourself - often they insist on extracting and copying deeds themselves...or it can only be done in this location...or...you get the point.
The more I learn about how things are done in other places, it amazes me that, despite what you might see on the national news about socialist VT, we often have a more "use pay" approach than more (theoretically) conservative jurisdictions.
I've paid for copies but never heard of any kind of fee for just being in the vault. I understand the concept and could learn to live with it, so long as it was relatively minor.