Property Records New Home

(Lawrenceville, Georgia, August 4, 2008) A cooperative project between the County Commissioners and the Superior Court Clerk for Gwinnett County has concluded in a new home for Gwinnett citizens' real and personal property records. The project, which began in 2002, will end with the dedication of the new Real Estate Records Room on Tuesday, August 19, 2008, hosted by Clerk of Superior Court Tom Lawler, and attended by the Commissioners and others.

The project, which included the scanning and indexing of over twelve million real estate documents, places all the real estate records for Gwinnett on computer, all the way back to September 26, 1871, after the old Gwinnett courthouse last burned down. The Clerk's office receives and processes over 250,000 property records each year. At the time the project was requested by the Clerk, the office was creating twenty-five to forty 300 page deed books each business day. These books had to be secured on traditional shelving. There was no more shelf space and temporary shelves had to be added to the courthouse.

As part of this project, the property room is able to operate without paper books. The new property room will never have to be expanded beyond its present size. Security for the deeds and other property records of Gwinnett citizens has been extremely enhanced. The only paper books in the new property room are Indexes, which are required by current law to be printed monthly, and made available for use by the public. These same indexes are also available electronically.

The citizens of Gwinnett are invited to use the new property room in the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, during any normal business day. Access to the deed records in the property room is free, as always, with a statutory fee of $.50 per page for each copy.