Bulletin: PA2019001

Dear Associates:

Sometime late last week, the computer systems of the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA were infected by a virus which has made it impossible to search the civil docket records of the Philadelphia Courts. There is no indication at this time when the problem may be resolved. The Department of Records has not been affected so far and PhilaDOX appears to be functioning normally.

Effective as of the date of this Bulletin, for commitments with an effective date of March 1, 2019, or later and which will close on or before June 11, 2019, closing may occur. You need to follow all standard procedures for obtaining any and all bring downs that may be available prior to proceeding to closing and all standard unaltered Owner’s and Purchaser’s Affidavits executed by Borrowers/Sellers and Purchasers stipulating that there are no mortgages, judgments, encumbrances, easements, or pending suits that are not set forth in the Commitment must be obtained as usual.

For new commitments, the following requirement should be added to Schedule B-1:

NOTICE: Websites and computer programs associated with the City of Philadelphia’s First Judicial District court system have been temporarily shut down. In order to close this transaction, you must obtain advance approval from Stewart Underwriting. Further, this commitment may be revised to include additional requirements and exceptions based upon the Company’s review of the Public Records. 

For any new commitments, there should also be separate cover dates for the Department of Records and the Office of Judicial Support.

Stewart Underwriting will continue to monitor the situation and if the system shutdown continues, we will update this Bulletin for any closings that are to occur after June 11, 2019.

As a reminder, all issuing offices must search the names of the parties to the transaction, including the seller, buyer/borrower, payoff lender and new lender, using the Special Alerts database, which may be accessed at https://specialalerts.stewart.com/ or as a link from https://www.stewart.com/ and/or https://www.virtualunderwriter.com/. 

If you have any questions relating to this or other bulletins, please contact a Stewart Title Guaranty Company underwriter.

For on-line viewing of this and other bulletins, please log onto www.vuwriter.com.