MultiGeometry t1_j44r2ay wrote
Reply to comment by thisoneisnotasbad in Cyberattack takes down land-records management system used by many Vermont towns by sickter6
Depends on where you live and whether there’s a modern survey. My deed is described as ‘approximately 2 acres where Mr and Mrs Smith have their primary residence along River Rd.’ The polygons on file with the town, and thus, the state, are approximations. My deed implies 130’ of road frontage, but the town records imply 230’. Somewhere between that difference lies half of my barn. With my neighbors, we have gentlemen’s agreements on where property lines probably are. And because everyone is nice, no one has a problem.
I’ve researched the deed back to the 1930s. If I hired a surveyor they would likely need to research the deed to its inception (early 1800s or whatever records still exist), along with all the surrounding plots and various subdivisions before establishing boundaries. Even then, it might require legal agreements with the neighbors to address any ambiguities.
So yes, if the town records suddenly become inaccessible there’s no way for me to legally hire someone to establish my boundaries. If I were to try to sell my home and the buyer gets spooked by the lack of a survey, I’ll be out of luck. If I get a ride litigious neighbor, that’s not something that could be easily resolved.
Vermont is an old state with unique challenges. Losing access to land records is a pretty big deal in some parts where 20th century modernization was overlooked.
thisoneisnotasbad t1_j45ryrb wrote
I domt understand your point. This company being offline did not impact access to any land record. The only thing it did was resell public records. Your survey example didn’t make sense to me either. If without a modern survey, the only way to resolve it is to do deed research, this is free from the town.
It seems many people don’t understand this either. This company got access to 1/6 of the towns in VT and is charging people for access to the record they can get for free direct from the town.
- 1/5.5 to be closer, not 1/6
MultiGeometry t1_j47mpn6 wrote
Except my town directs people to this website instead of bogging down the town clerk with records requests. Just because the website is down doesn’t mean the clerks office magically has new staff. Also, the article mentions that because this company is supposed to be handling records requests, they haven’t indexed the physical records as well as they have had to in the past.
thisoneisnotasbad t1_j48akq3 wrote
Nobody except entitled people expect the town clerk to do their record search for them. Who TF thinks it is the town clerks job?
MultiGeometry t1_j49n5xt wrote
Im giving up. You seem to have a view of how the world works that lines up with how you wish it worked. I simply can’t convince you that people experience hardships that you were unaware of.
You win. This service outage affects no one. Including me. Just five minutes ago I called up the state office and they’re sending a personal consultant with everything I need to complete an ALTA survey by Monday. I’m so relieved. /s
thisoneisnotasbad t1_j4b3hj7 wrote
Are you intentionally misstating what I am saying? I will chose to think you are not and simply don’t understand the point of either article or what the majority of the posts in this thread are about.
If you read you will see most are not about being inconvenienced they are about town records being gone, inaccessible or held hostage. I was pointing out none of those are the case and all the records this company has, the 18% of the state property record, are available for free at your town clerks office. (Or potentially $4/hr max for you to access the books)
While the company adds value, the response to a private data reseller being offline is, for lack of a better term, ignorant.
If you and your business are experiencing hardships because a private company goes offline, that really sucks for you but is not the same as state records being lost or unavailable.
If you can’t see the difference then I’m not sure what to tell you.
MultiGeometry t1_j49pgw9 wrote
This is like saying only entitled people expect librarians to help them find a book. It’s literally the town clerks job to maintain the land records, and anyone who needs help or has questions, has a reasonable expectation that the town clerk wouldn’t call them an entitled prick and to go F off.
thisoneisnotasbad t1_j4b3pyg wrote
It’s is their job to maintain the records and provide you access, not do your research for you. Nobody is saying you will be called a prick, but expecting the town clerk to pull records for you is peak entitlement.
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