MAHONING CO. Alteringrecord system

Mahoning County still has about 400 parcels recorded under the old system.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- An age-old but little-used method of recording land in Mahoning County is about to fall by the wayside, though most people will probably never notice.
Recorder Ronald Gerberry said registered land, also known as Torrens land, was introduced in the United States in the late 1800s. The Torrens system is named for Englishman Sir Robert Torrens, who was familiar with the Australian practice of certifying ownership and transferring vessels in the shipping industry, Gerberry said.
Torrens adapted the practice and applied it to land purchases, developing a system that was eventually accepted around the world. It became legal in Ohio in 1896.
County commissioners have authorized Gerberry to start the process of eliminating the Torrens system here. A public hearing for people who own Torrens land will be April 24 in the commissioners' hearing room at the courthouse, 120 Market St.
Vestiges remain: Though most Ohio counties have since done away with it, Mahoning County still has about 400 parcels of Torrens land, all on Youngstown's West Side, north of Mahoning Avenue, registered in 1915, Gerberry said. The owners of those parcels will be notified of the hearing, though Gerberry said he expects little response.
He said there should be no cause for concern because the change will have no impact on ownership or interest in the land. The only change will be in how land transfers are recorded. The process will become faster and cheaper, he said.
By comparison, there are 165,000 parcels recorded the updated way, he said. A spokeswoman in the recorder's office said they transfer about two parcels of Torrens land per week, compared with an average of 1,000 parcels a week using the updated method.
The problem is that when any of those parcels are sold or otherwise transferred, the paperwork required is longer and more cumbersome than an updated land transfer, Gerberry said.
All-day job: He said it takes one clerk about eight hours to complete the job, which includes typing detailed property descriptions and drawing maps on two recording documents. A transfer using the updated method is done in less than 30 minutes, Gerberry said. Eliminating the Torrens process will give employees more time for other tasks, he said.
The updated format of recording, implemented in the early 1900s, involves simply taking the deed or mortgage to the recorder's office for indexing and photocopying.
That's the fundamental difference between the Torrens system and conventional methods of recording land, Gerberry said. The Torrens system requires greater government responsibility and involvement, which makes it more expensive.
"This is an old-fashioned system of registering land that should have been done away with a long time ago," Gerberry said. "It is time-consuming, and it is unnecessary."
Torrens land registration was abolished in Columbiana and Trumbull counties for the same reasons several years ago, spokesmen in those offices said.
Because of the extra work involved, it costs $30 to record a deed for Torrens property, while it costs only $14 for a traditional recording, Gerberry said.