Bulletin: NY000701a

The purpose of this Bulletin is to modify Bulletin 701 issued in response to the temporary unavailability of the NYC online judgment and lien search system.  It has been brought to our attention that in-person searching of the judgment and lien system is not available in Kings and New York Counties and is very limited in Richmond, Bronx and Queens Counties. While in-person searches are to be obtained when practicable, for the cases where it is not possible and while the system remains down, the following exception is to be raised:

Due to the temporary outage of the NYC judgment and lien search system, updated judgment and lien searches are not currently available. Policy excepts any matters filed or appearing of record in said system subsequent to the effective date of the report.

You may omit this exception if the following criteria applies and/or procedure is followed:

1. The policy does not exceed $3 million, is not related to construction financing and/or is within 8 months of the completion of construction.  Any other transaction will be addressed on a case-by-case basis.  Please contact underwriting counsel for approval.
2. You secure Stewart Title Insurance Company’s customary title affidavit or similar affidavit from the current owner of the real property with indemnity and reliance language along with the following additional assurances:
   • No labor, services or materials have been performed, provided or completed to or for the Property within the last eight months that have not been paid for and there are presently no unpaid bills for labor, services, or materials performed on or provided to the Property or any improvements on the Property.  I have received no notice of any mechanic liens claim.
   • I am not a party to any litigation claiming or alleging any ownership interest or lien on the Property.
3. The title examination does not show that the owner is subject to any outstanding involuntary or statutory liens, such as judgment liens, tax liens or mechanic’s liens, or lawsuits;
   • In addition you must perform a litigation search for the owner on both the NYS NYSCEF system (https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/Login) and the Federal PACER system (https://pcl.uscourts.gov/pcl/index.jsf) for any active/pending litigation.  If there are any returns they must be disclosed and approval obtained from underwriting counsel.

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.

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