But since a recent cyber attack left residents of Iowa County without vital records and services, he “can’t move forward,” and his closing has been pushed back.
“Thankfully, our [current] landlord was able to give us two extra months of leeway,” Maciejewski said, adding he otherwise would have had to find somewhere else to live. “There's really nothing we can do, but sit and wait.”
He’s not the only one.
The cyber attack that struck Iowa County on April 28 disrupted several key systems related to real estate, land transactions, deeds and tax processing.
The county determined it to be a ransomware attack, with the attacker deleting a “significant portion” of the county’s network, including backups, meaning some data can’t be recovered, an Iowa County spokesperson told the Wisconsin State Journal. The county expects recovering will be a “lengthy and complex process.”
Citing the ongoing investigation, the spokesperson declined to say whether a ransom was paid.
While existing backups helped rebuild the system, the county said it is still assessing the extent of the damage and whether any personal information was accessed. Several key systems, including past tax information and delinquent payment history, remain offline more than a month later.
With the absence of necessary tax and titling records and services, home buyers and sellers have been stuck in limbo.
Erin Price was set to use the funds from the May 16 closing of her home to begin the process of building her new one. But now she is unable to complete the sale and she’s still on the hook for closing costs.
“We were realistically supposed to be breaking ground right now,” she said. “We can’t do anything.”
Restaino & Associates Realtors agent Kelli Baron said county officials told her it would be “quite a while before any real estate transactions would take place.” Baron said she reached out to politicians and county officials but came away with the impression no one knew how long rebuilding the system would take.
Numerous residents on social media criticized the absence of a definable end date to the problems, taking aim at the county over what they said was a lack of transparency.
“What is frustrating is ‘Give us a timeline,’ right?” Price said. “Is it going to be the end of June, or is it going to be September or is it going to be the entire year?”
Price said her lawyer set a date for June 26, but there is no guarantee the situation will be different then. If it lasts longer, she said the buyers, who were forced to live with their parents since the closing wasn’t completed, could back out.
The busiest season for real estate is typically spring to early summer.
“Nobody wants to build or sell a home in the middle of December” in Wisconsin or stay with their parents for an extended amount of time, Price said.
The county announced Thursday it hired a vendor to assist with the restoration of land records system and search functionality. It also noted that the full restoration effort includes the review of more than a million images.
Maciejewski, who is waiting to close on his Mineral Point home, called it “infuriating” the county is leaving people in the dark about this, and referenced a similar cyber attack that occurred two years ago.
“Is there something more broadly wrong? Is it internal?” he said. “It’s just leaving me very doubtful of even wanting to live in Iowa County at this point, because its mismanagement gonna continue in the future.”
The Iowa County spokesperson said additional information would be shared on its website as soon as it became available.
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