Jun 17, 2023 2 min read

A court order incorrectly coded in a computer system in the Washington County Recorder of Deeds office Wednesday led to more than 7,000 properties accidentally being transferred to the ownership of Range Resources, the oil and gas company.

The order was for the transfer of oil and gas leases, and when the system in the recorder of deeds office communicated with the system in the county’s tax revenue office, the ownership of the property was accidentally transferred, according to Washington County Commissioner Diana Irey Vaughan.

“I’ve never been made aware of something like this happening before to this extent,” Irey Vaughan said Friday.

All the properties were expected to be shifted back to their correct owners sometime Friday night or Saturday morning, when the system in the tax office refreshes, according to Raffaele Casale, the office’s director. He said his office was able to return to a system backup from Wednesday to restore the records. About a half-day’s assessment work had been lost, Casale added, and was being put back in on Friday.

“We caught it early enough that we were able to restore the original data back to the previous backup,” Casale explained. “We didn’t lose much.”

Carrie Perrell, the recorder of deeds, said she didn’t believe that the snafu would impact any real estate transfers or mortgage payments. After investigating what happened, she said her office had taken steps to correct the problem with Landex, the office’s software provider. She said a new category of recording will prevent it from happening in the future.

Irey Vaughan said she was glad that Casale was able to find a work-around to restore the data, rather than it having to be put back in the system manually.

“The good news is, we have a top-notch director in our tax office,” she said.