Odyssey is Coming to the (rest of) the Triangle (and nearby)

Updated on 4/16/2024: To clarify, closings in Track 4 counties on or before 4/24/2024 are unaffected by the Odyssey transition. Closings on 4/25/2024 or later will be affected (the existing court filing systems in Track 4 counties become unavailable that day, and the Odyssey system is expected to be available beginning 4/29/2024).

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As you may know, North Carolina has been transitioning its court records system (and various associated systems throughout state government) to a modern integrated e-filing system. As of today the following counties have moved all civil and criminal court filings to the new system: Beaufort, Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Harnett, Hyde, Johnston, Lee, Martin, Mecklenburg, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Tyrell, Wake, Washington. The next group of counties transitions on April 29, 2024: Alamance, Chatham, Durham, Franklin, Granville, Guilford, Orange, Person, Vance, Warren. Track 5 counties will transition in July: Buncombe, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Macon, Polk, Swain, Transylvania. We’re told to expect that all remaining North Carolina counties will transition later this year.

For our real estate transaction practice, that means that, with the April transition, all of the counties we work in routinely will be in the Odyssey system before May, and we’ll be internally transitioning our default processes from the legacy VCAP system (an old, mainframe based system that provides limited information about civil and criminal records) to the modern Odyssey system (which will allow us to access documents and other detailed information for civil and criminal records that are filed after the Odyssey transition). The biggest difference to us is we’ll be able to view certain public records from our office, without having to visit the county clerk’s office to review and copy paper records. Of course, the transition’s benefits will grow over time, and we’ll need to keep using both systems until all counties have transitioned.

Unfortunately, the transitions that have been completed and the Odyssey system itself are experiencing some issues. Most concerning to us, it’s not clear that the existing search tools enable us to find everything that we want to find. North Carolina real estate attorneys (including the Real Estate Lawyers Association of North Carolina), title insurance companies, and others are working to improve the system while continuing to handle transactions. That means there will be some additional notarized documents required in Odyssey counties as we move forward, and there can be some delays in searches and recording as we begin to work mostly in the new system, learn more about its pros and cons, and work around its limitations.

For our real estate clients and agents, we recommend if possible avoiding closing late this month (between the 24th and the 29th, during the transition).

Happy Odyssey transition!