According to Mercer County Clerk Paula Sollami Covello, real estate professionals will again have access to all property records, including those subject to Daniel’s Law, once they register with the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance. After real estate professionals and title searchers register and are approved, they will have access to all records, even those that were redacted or masked in accordance with Daniel’s Law.
Daniel’s Law was put into place in 2020 in response to the tragic death of Judge Esther Salas and Mark Anderl’s son, Daniel Anderl. The law prohibits disclosure of the residential addresses of certain law officials, and enforcement officers on websites controlled by state, county, and local government agencies. Consequently, County Clerks and other government offices redacted their addresses from public search engines throughout New Jersey. However, the NJ Legislature later created an exemption for qualified real estate professionals so that property transactions could continue moving forward. Those business entities are defined as “any person or entity organized under the laws of this State for the primary purpose of determining the existence of any lien, lawsuit, lease, easement, mortgage or other encumbrance or restriction, or ownership interest, on any property and regularly conducts business with any title insurance company or title insurance agent.”
Applications may be submitted electronically by completing the form and following the instructions here: https://www.state.nj.us/dobi/division_insurance/titlesearch/index.html. There is no cost to complete the registration process.
Any questions regarding the registration process can be directed to: [email protected]
For more information on the services offered by the office of the Mercer County Clerk, please click here or call 609.989.6465.
