Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Kentucky

pva charging for service

Our local PVA office is charging the county residents to access PUBLIC information records on the COUNTY owned web site. Is that legal? I have done some searching and found other counties that have the info available free on their site and I have found others that charge. If it is public info and the site is funded with our tax dollars then why do we have to pay to access the information? Thanks


Asked on 2/18/04, 8:28 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Philip Owens Philip M. Owens, Attorney at Law

Re: pva charging for service

I think that this is placed on the same footing as charging for copies in order to defray the convenience of copying. If you walk into the office and use the records, that is, of course, free however the convenience of providing the extra service of a web site may be charged for in order to defray costs. The taxpayers are only obligated to pay for the basic operations of the office. The county clerk, charges for copies of documents in most counties. They do not charge for maintaining the records and a place to view them and write things down. You can choose to copy a deed in longhand for example or pay the .25 cents (or whatever) for a copy. A web site is not a normal part of the PVA duties but is an extra service.

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Answered on 2/18/04, 1:19 pm


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