Our Coronavirus Response

Dear Friends of Paragon Title,
The global spread of coronavirus continues to have profound effects on our daily lives. As we navigate these uncharted waters, we do so knowing that we are in this together.

We want you to know a few things.

Your Health is Our #1 Priority Too. The global spread of coronavirus continues to have profound effects on our daily lives. As always, the safety and satisfaction of our agents and customers remains our highest priority. Accordingly, we are taking measures recommended by the CDC and have implemented a plan to allow us to best serve you and your clients under these ever-changing circumstances. Contact us for more information about our efforts to keep our offices clean and safe.

Both DC and MD Recording Offices are open in various capacities. 

DC Recorder Of Deeds- You may have seen a recent announcement that the Recorder of Deeds closed walk in and mail in services for a period of time. DC will continue to process docs recorded electronically. Paragon Title electronically records in DC and all jurisdictions where accepted. For now, our DC recordings are unaffected by the recent announcement.

Montgomery County-  Recently, a court order was issued requiring that Land Records Office continue to accept documents for recording during the coronavirus emergency. 

As of Now, We’re Finding Flexibility, and Settling on Time. This may change upon the issuance of Shelter in Place or similar Orders from State or Local Government.

As of this time, we are fortunate to not be experiencing any operational delays as a result of coronavirus. In this rapidly changing scenario, we remain committed to providing you and your clients with our full range of settlement services. We have telework and business continuity plans in place, and thanks to our dedicated staff, we continue to operate with maximum capacity. We will continue to do everything we can to adapt and provide a flexible closing process as the challenges imposed by coronavirus continue to evolve. As we do, we invite your feedback as we work to build a process around the needs of you and your client.

The circumstances surrounding the coronavirus response are ever changing. States across the country have imposed Shelter in Place and other similar Orders directing the closure of certain types of businesses. If such an Order were to come out, Paragon Title will issue further guidance on any updated options for closing remotely.

Also, recently, GCAAR, MR, and NVAR have all released coronavirus language for use alongside their Contracts. Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have about that addendum.
 
Delivery of New Contracts and EMD’s to Paragon Title.
Signatures and Notaries aren’t the only thing going digital. Since much of our staff is working remotely, and because a Shelter in Place Order can come down at any moment, we ask that you submit new contracts to Paragon Title by e-mail to Contracts@ParagonTitle.com. We also ask that you have your Buyers wire us the EMD. For now, our normal procedure will continue that we ask that your client call our office to obtain our wiring instructions. Once we have them on the phone, we will send them the info. We are looking into streamlining the secure sending of wire instructions. We look forward to having an update for you soon.
 
In Conclusion… For Now…
While we don’t know what the future holds, we will continue to do everything we can to be prepared. We are working closely with our title insurers and have established plans to allow us to continue settlements should a recording office shut down for a time.

To allow for prompt recording even following the closure of a land recording office, we e-record in every jurisdiction we can. Were a recording office to become unable to accept paper and electronic documents for recording, our buyers will have title insurance protection during that gap period. Of course, as with many of these coronavirus related policies, there are requirements and the lender will have to be on board.

We will communicate with you as this evolves. If this coming week, is anything like last week, it promises to be quite a ride, with much more to update.

Please feel free to email us at help@pargontitle.com with any questions that you have.

Your Partner,

Paragon Title