New Jersey Recording Fee Surcharge Helps Homeless

Recording Fee Surcharge now in effect in several counties with more to follow.

New Jersey's County Homelessness Trust Fund Act, P.L. 2009, c. 123, became law in September 2009. The Act permits counties to establish a Homelessness Trust Fund for the purpose of moving the homeless and formerly homeless into permanent affordable housing. In order to fund this initiative, those counties that establish such a fund may add a $3 surcharge to recording fees.

Presently, the following four counties have elected to establish a Homelessness Trust Fund and are charging the $3 surcharge:

Hudson, Bergen , Middlesex and Passaic.

Union County has established the Trust Fund but has not yet started to impose the surcharge.

The statute is slightly confusing as it says the recording of assignments and substitutions of Deeds of Trust as being exempt from the fee. (This phrase was lifted from a similar statute in Washington State.) We think the law’s intention is to exempt assignments of mortgages, and the Hudson, Middlesex, Passaic and Union County Clerks agree.

However, Bergen County does not give any credence to the intention of the statute and requires payment of the surcharge on an assignment of mortgage.

So, before you send those documents to the clerk for recording, call ahead to be certain as to the status of the surcharge in that county.

We will do our best to keep you up to date as more counties create the Trust Fund and begin imposing the surcharge.

For your next title order
or if you have questions about what you see here,
contact Stephen M. Flatow
Vested Title Inc.
648 Newark Avenue, P.O. Box 6453, Jersey City, NJ 07306
Tel 201-656-9220 - Fax 201-656-4506
E-mail vti@vested.com - www.vested.com

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Creative Solution - Move Homeless into Vacant Homes

A glut of empty houses in Miami, Florida, vacated because of foreclosure or abandonment, are being recycled to the homeless. This is not part of the bailout package but the work of one Max Rameau who has taken it upon himself to act as a one-man relocation program.

According to reports,

Max Rameau delivers his sales pitch like a pro. "All tile floor!" he says during a recent showing. "And the living room, wow! It has great blinds."

But in nearly every other respect, he is unlike any real estate agent you've ever met. He is unshaven, drives a beat-up car and wears grungy cut-off sweat pants. He also breaks into the homes he shows. And his clients don't have a dime for a down payment.

While Miami is struggling with the burden of homes without owners, Rameau is working to get those homes occupied. Unorthodox? Ya think? But getting people off the street, out of the weather, and encouraging them to maintain the property, might just be a good thing.

Check out the reports at FOXNews.com.

Stephen M. Flatow

Vested Title Inc., 648 Newark Avenue, P.O. Box 6453, Jersey City, NJ 07306. Tel 201-656-9220. Fax 201-656-4506. E-mail vti@vested.com Sphere: Related Content