DSNews published an article regarding the trend of state legislatures moving toward the Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS) for paperless vacant property registration.

States Move Toward Electronic Property Registration

Carrie Bay | 04.15.09  

The Virginia Legislature has passed House Bill 2150, which would allow lenders and servicers to register their foreclosed properties, for the purpose of property preservation tracking, with the Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS) instead of using individual municipal registration databases.

MERS will allow cities throughout the state to institute a solitary, uniform system for tracking vacant single-family residential properties to help ensure lenders' and servicers' compliance with local ordinances. The single-system approach will allow Virginia municipalities to save both money and resources by not having to create and maintain their own databases of properties.

Other states are also following suit and moving toward a paperless property registration system. The Florida Senate has introduced legislation that would allow cities to accept ordinance registrations via an electronic mortgage database. The Connecticut General Assembly is also reviewing a bill that would allow owners of foreclosed or vacant homes in the state to register the property with MERS to comply with local regulations. If enacted, Connecticut's legislation would be effective October 1, 2009.

The MERS initiative is being spearheaded by the Mortgage Bankers Association's Vacant Property Registration committee, which is chaired by Robert Klein, CEO of Safeguard Properties, a national field services and property preservation company.