Westchester County Clerk

Most of the documents maintained by the Office of the Westchester County Clerk are public records, and are therefore available to the public via Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests.  This office has made an effort to make many of the public land and legal documents available directly to the public through our Westchester Records Online search tool, without the need to submit a request and wait for a response.  The court files that this office maintains for the Supreme and County Courts are exempted from FOIL, but most of these files are publically available via provisions of the Judiciary Law and can be requested directly from our Legal Division, without the need for a FOIL request.  The land records that this office maintains can be obtained directly from our Land Records Division as well.

In Westchester County, each county department complies with its own FOIL requests.  The Office of the Westchester County Clerk complies with FOIL requests seeking records held by the County Clerk.  All other FOIL requests regarding County departments or actions should be addressed to the appropriate department’s FOIL officer or to the County Executive or County Attorney.

If you are requesting records held by the Office of the Westchester County Clerk, please submit those requests electronically to or by regular mail to:

Office of the Westchester County Clerk
110 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
White Plains, NY 10601
Attn: FOIL Officer

You may also request records held by any other county office by filling out the online FOIL Request Form.

Please note that if you are seeking a land record, such as your deed,  you can request that directly from our Land Records Division.  If you are seeking a court record, such as your divorce decree, you can request that directly from our Legal Division.

For more information about the New York State Freedom of Information Law, visit the New York State Committee on Open Government’s site.

Establish an Automated Clearing House (ACH Direct) Account with the Office of the Westchester County Clerk.

Individuals or organizations who frequently submit documents may establish an ACH Direct Account with the County Clerk to ensure an easy, quick and accurate payment of their transactions.  Requestors may specify any bank account held at a participating Federal Reserve Bank to be used as an ACH debit account for the payment of fees and/or taxes due in connection with any of the following:

• Recording Fees, Mortgage Taxes and Transfer Taxes in our Land Records Division;
• Court fees when documents are submitted via the New York State Courts Electronic Filing (NYSCEF) System; and
• Filing Fees for Electronically Filed Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) Statements

ACH Direct account set up
In order to establish a direct account with the County Clerk, requestors need to provide a completed Authorization for Direct Payment.  The completed agreement form should be mailed to:  Claudette Spence, Office of the Westchester County Clerk, 110 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., White Plains, NY 10601.  While we require the original signed form to be mailed or delivered to this office, you may also fax the form to (914) 813-4205, so we can begin setting up the account while awaiting receipt of the original.

Once your authorization form has been received, our office will process a $.50 (fifty cents) transaction through your designated ACH account to be sure that the account information captured is accurate and that future debits will be properly processed.  Requestors will receive an activity report email when the money is transferred out of their account and a second email when the money is transferred back into their account.  Once the account test has been successfully completed, the customer will receive an email to confirm they can begin using ACH as a payment option. We estimate it will take up to five business days to establish an ACH account.

Using ACH Direct to pay for a submission
Once your ACH Direct Account is set up, you can begin using it as follows:

Recording Fees, Mortgage Taxes and Transfer Taxes
When preparing your PREP Payment Cover Page, simply choose ACH as your payment type.  If you have more than one ACH Account, choose the account from which you would like fees or taxes debited.

Court Fees for Documents Submitted via NYSCEF
On the Payment Screen in the NYSCEF System, simply choose “Debit from Account on File with County Clerk” as your payment type.

Debiting your bank Account
When the Office of the County Clerk is ready to debit your account, you will receive an email notification with transaction details including the amount to be debited.  The debit will take place two business days following the e-mail notification to offer you time to confirm that funds are available and the proposed debit is in order.

Important ACH Direct Account Advantages

• No more paper checks to prepare, sign and mail
• Reduce the risk of check fraud
• Eliminate document rejections due to incorrect payment amounts or unsigned checks
• Your payment is only processed when your document is recorded, eliminating accounting headaches caused by documents which have been paid for but rejected
• It’s an eco-friendly way to do business

For more information, contact Claudette Spence at (914) 995-2140.