TRENTON, N.J. — Real estate professionals may once again have access to all property records, including those subject to Daniel’s Law, if they complete a simple registration with the state, explains Mercer County Clerk Paula Sollami Covello.
Real estate professionals, including title searchers, may now register with the N.J. Department of Banking and Insurance, and upon approval, these professionals will have clear access to all records, including those that were redacted, or masked, in accordance with Daniel’s Law.
Daniel’s Law was implemented in 2020 inorder to protect law enforcement officers, judicial officers, prosecutors, and their families from public record searches. Consequently, County Clerks and other government offices redacted their addresses from public search engines throughout New Jersey.
However, the N.J. Legislature later created an exemption for qualified real estate professionals, so that property transactions could continue to move 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.”
Once registered with the Department of Banking and Insurance, title search businesses and real estate businesses may request documents subjected to redaction or nondisclosure under Daniel’s Law.
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.
All registrants must maintain their information and immediately inform the Department of Banking and Insurance of any changes to the information in their registration. Any questions regarding the registration process can be directed to: TitleSearch@dobi.nj.gov.
For more information on the services offered by the Office of the Mercer County Clerk or questions regarding our public search room, please visit the Mercer County Clerk’s website at https://www.mercercounty.org/government/county-clerk or call the office’s main number at 609-989-6465.