The property records fiasco in Cuyahoga County — detailed for the health of everyone’s funny bone in deposition testimony that featured a debate on the definition of “photocopy,” and more extensively in Scene’s cover story on the issue — has come to an end.
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled 7-0 today that Cuyahoga County must provide property records on CD for $1 for those who request them and can not charge hundreds of thousands of dollars ($2 a page) like they wanted to, according to Cleveland.com
So have at it, Cuyahogians. All the property and deed information you could ever want now costs $1. Make a request. Make 17 requests. Ask if they can use the extra storage space on the disc to make you a mix tape. Go nuts. The county just spent $55,000 in legal fees and they lost, so they’re probably in a bad mood. Expect a lot of Dashboard Confessional.
This article appears in Feb 29 – Mar 6, 2012.
As someone who does quite a bit of property research as part of my job, I just want to let folks know that you don’t even have to pay $1 if you don’t want to. Pretty much all the property and deed information one could ever want is available for FREE through the websites for the County Fiscal Officer (property info) and the County Recorder’s Office (deeds, etc). The county also has it’s own (again, FREE) GIS mapping website with parcel maps and other information. Just google “Cuyahoga County GIS”. Unless you need a really large volume of records, just use the websites. It’s quicker, cheaper, and easier.