Bulletin: NJ2022005

Dear Associates:

The Somerset County Clerk’s office experienced a ransomware attack on May 24, 2022, that has resulted in all computer systems being shut down. The County is working diligently to resolve this issue and is making considerable progress in returning to normal. The New Jersey office of Stewart Title Guaranty Company sent out an email on May 25, 2022, alerting our agents and providing instructions stating that all closings in Somerset County were to be suspended until further notice. This bulletin replaces NJ2022003 and NJ2022004.

As of Monday June 6, 2022, the County has resumed e-recording. Everything has been kept in chronological order since the shut down and they are working on the oldest instruments first in order to get them recorded.

Also, as of June 8, 2022, the County has started working on the instruments that have been delivered to the County Clerk’s Office (either via USPS / FedEx / UPS or walk in.) Those documents have also been saved in chronological order and the clerk’s office is working to record those as well.

As of June 9, 2022, the webservices for Somerset County have been restored for searching as well. Searchers now have access to conducting full searches through Somerset County’s webservices.

We are continuing to receive new updates from the County regarding the restoration of all services.

As of the date of this bulletin, the closing conditions that were previously included in NJ2022003 and NJ2022004 have now been rescinded.

We will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates accordingly. If you have any questions, including those about transactions that have recently closed or were scheduled to close soon, please call or email one of our Underwriting Counsels to discuss.

If you have any questions relating to this or other bulletins, please contact a Stewart Title Guaranty Company underwriter.

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