Saandar Mijiddoorj (left), president of Monmap Engineering Company, LTD in Mongolia, looks over deeds from a deedbook spanning the years of 1722-1729 with Paul Metzger, clerk of the court for Spotsylvania County.

Mongolian delegation looks to Spotsylvania County clerk of court for ideas

Date published: 8/24/2007

By DAN TELVOCK

Ever since Mongolia peacefully broke from the grips of communism in 1990, the government found itself exploring ways to modernize.

This exploration brought two Mongolians to Spotsylvania County's Courthouse yesterday to glance the state-of-the-art land record system.

Circuit Court Clerk Paul Metzger said he had no choice but to modernize the land records system from paper-based to digital. Wills, marriage licenses and deeds are some of the documents now digitized.

"Otherwise, we'd be drowning in paper," Metzger said to the two Mongolians, Dr. Saandar Mijiddorg, president of Monmap Engineering, and Munkhbaatar Dorjgotov, with the Ministry of Construction and Urban Development of Mongolia.

"There's no more space," Metzger said. "Now, we have no paper. Everything is on the computers."

The county government hired International Land Systems to make the change from a paper-based land record system to digital. The project was completed in 2002. Peter Rabley, president of ILS, said the U.S. Department of State selected his company to analyze the land records system in Mongolia. When Mongolia ratified its Constitution in 1992, residents began to take ownership of property. There was essentially a land-record rush, he said.

"It's almost all paper," Rabley said. "One of the things we are recommending is for them to start scanning their land records."

With Spotsylvania County's digital land record system, when someone files a deed, it is scanned and automatically entered into the computer for public view that same day. Metzger said that before the new system was installed, it took about a week to get any document recorded.

In the near future, a researcher will be able to pick a tax map number, see a map of its exact location, and every record associated with that piece of property.

Translating for Dorjgotov, Dr. Mijiddorj said it takes about a month to record a land record document in Mongolia.

"This is a real demand," he said.

Most of the population is in the capital, Ulaanbaatar. Apartments are the main housing in Mongolia. A two-bedroom, 1,000-square-foot apartment costs about $30,000, Dorjgotov said. The average middle income is about $10,000 a year.

Mongolia's unicameral parliamentary system of government is currently trying to establish mortgage banking. Most property deals are still cash based. But with such a young population, Dorjgotov said the government is trying to help residents who don't have the cash.

"We are mostly middle-income young families," Dorjgotov said. "They need a mortgage, and we would like to support them. It's much safer to have mortgage banking than the black market."

But this effort will create more paper land records, he acknowledged. Dorjgotov and Mijiddorg both said what they saw yesterday in the Spotsylvania clerk's office would be very useful in their country.

"We are amazed with your system, that you can do everything in one day," Mijiddorj told Metzger.

Dan Telvock: 540/374-5438
Email: dtelvock@freelancestar.com

Mongolia is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It's about the size of Alaska. About two-thirds of the 2.8 million people are under the age of 30. And 30 percent are nomadic. Tibetan Buddhism is the spiritual path for 90 percent of Mongolians.

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Date published: 8/24/2007