Bulletin: NY000679

Dear Associates:

Please be advised that New York counties that employ Cott Systems Inc. (“Cott”) technologies for recording, imaging, searching land and court records have been hacked and may not be searched.

Per Cott’s website their systems are used throughout various counties in 19 states; initially Chenango, Clinton, Onondaga, Rockland and Tioga counties were affected but other NY counties have been affected. Additionally, some counties are using Cott for searching, some for recording and in some cases Cott is used for both searching and recording. NYC, Nassau and Westchester thus far have not been affected. Suffolk is still suffering under its September 8^th cyber-attack. Cott is working to resolve the problem however it is unknown when services will be restored.

As a result of this latest cyber-attack please be advised that the same STIC underwriting guidelines that are in effect for Suffolk County (see Bulletin 672c) must currently be applied to all affected counties, to wit:

Requests for policy approval will still need to be submitted to insure any form of construction financing in the affected counties, but policy-issuing agents need not submit requests for policy approval on other transactions so long as all of the following criteria are met:

1.             The transaction is beneath the policy-issuing agent’s monetary threshold and does not contain any other extra-hazardous risks that would ordinarily necessitate underwriter approval for issuance of the policy.

2.             The parties execute the Indemnity and Acknowledgment issued in connection with this series of bulletins (and linked below).

3.             There are no involuntary liens (judgments, social services liens, etc.).

4.             Policy-issuing agents must perform a litigation search on the New York State Courts e-filing web site at the following address: https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/Login.  Any returns must be disclosed, and policy approval will be required at that point.

5.             Policy-issuing agents must take duplicate originals of all recordable instruments.

6.             Policy-issuing agents must ensure that all appropriate transfer and real estate tax can be paid to either the affected counties or New York State (or other taxing authority, as appropriate).

7.             Once service has been restored contins are to be run to confirm all documents have been recorded.

8.             For reports with a search/effective date exceeding 60 days, the following exception is to be raised in both the fee and loan policies: “Policy excepts any matters that appear of record subsequent to the effective date of the title report”

9.             The Cott Systems Exceptions, also linked below, must be added to all reports.

10.          An Indemnity and Acknowledgment, also linked below, must be signed by the parties.

As a reminder, you a responsible for knowledge and compliance with the information contained in all Bulletins and Special Alerts as posted on Virtual Underwriter (www.vuwriter.com), whether you receive them by electronic distribution or not.

In the event you have any questions regarding the above, please contact Stewart Title Legal Department at 212-922-0050 and speak with any Underwriting Counsel.

For on-line viewing of this and other bulletins, please log onto www.vuwriter.com. 

Forms: Cott System Exceptions; Cott System Indemnification