I think the way to deal with all of the problems you listed, which are probably the main ones, have also been discussed in this forum by many others.

The potential remedies to most or all of these problems are likely:

1. Come up with reasonable but stringent standards for licensing searchers
2. Restrict searching and examination to licensed, in-state professionals
3. Take the records off-line; or
4. Make access fee based or restricted to licensed searchers to limit access
to serious and responsible professionals;

The first two require changes in the law. The last two are more likely to be accomplished by addressing the issue with individual county officials although some adjustment in state law may be necessary.

Independent abstractors will have a tough time getting land title associations to help them. Our state LTA used to compete with our abstractor association, although that dynamic changed some time ago. Each LTA works primarily with their underwriters and agents, many of whom have business plans of providing their own in-house alternatives to independent abstractors. With that dynamic in place, you are not likely to see an organization like your state land title association do anything that interferes with competition between its constituents.

I’m not sure how it is in other states, but in southeast PA, I don’t think any searchers belong to the land title association and most do not belong to our state abstractor organization even though we have been around for 60 plus years. Most do not see the benefit of belonging to any such organizations and as a result we have no real clout when it comes to changes in the business or state law.

As an aside, I think it has already been suggested to move non-payment posts to another forum. I would definitely agree with that since there are enough posts on that topic to warrant a new forum.


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