We had a similar problem with another well known national company about a year ago on this issue. You would all recognize the name. They had expressly requested the date of execution only for a mortgage but not the date of recording. We obtained exactly the information they requested. They called us several days later to tell us that they needed the recording date also, and that we would have to make a second trip to the land records office. We indicated that since the information was not part of the original request a second fee was due. They were outraged because they had assumed that the date of recording is "always" shown on the first page of the mortgage. We explained that this was a dangerous assumption in Connecticut because we have a multitude of cities and towns, and each has its own recording formalities. Some stamp the recording date on the first page and some on the last page. The client exclaimed "How was she supposed to know that?" We responded that there is no way, and as such she should not have assumed that the information is "always" printed on the first page. We were given the choice of retrieving the information at no charge or not performing future work for them. Since they were a low volume client we chose the latter.

This type of attitude is primarily why we no longer perform abstracts unless we are given the closing also.