News from the County Clerk’s Office: Dead People’s Stimulus Checks and Lunch Closure

A few local people tried claiming federal stimulus checks sent to their deceased relatives.

Fayette County Clerk Brenda Fietsam told the Commissioners Court on at a meeting on May 14 that her office has been getting some questions lately from people trying to set up estate accounts in order to deposit the checks.

“We had some people coming here to get letters testamentary or affidavits to open up estate accounts so they could claim stimulus checks for their deceased relatives,” Fietsam told the Record in an interview last week.

Fietsam said she knows of at least three people who made such inquiries at her office.

“They were saying that they tried cashing the checks at a bank, and the bank told them they needed to set up an estate account, so then they came to us,” Fietsam said.

The U.S. Treasury Department earlier this month stated that stimulus checks sent to deceased people should be returned to the Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for returning the checks are available at https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/economic-impact-paymentinformation-center#more.

“We haven’t gotten any of these kinds of calls this week, so maybe people are getting caught up,” Fietsam said.

In other news from the County Clerk’s Office, Fietsam said she has decided to close the office from noon to 1 p.m. each day for lunch. Fietsam said she made the change because her office has been staffed by a skeleton crew during the coronavirus pandemic.

“It just gets too busy for the number of people we have in the office,” Fietsam said.

Fietsam acknowledged that some members of the public may not have any other time except their lunch hour to conduct business while her office is open. The County clerk’s office issues marriage licenses, records assume names, handles property records such as deeds, and performs a wide variety of other official services.

“Not everyone happy about it, as far as public goes,” she said. “But we have been short handed at lunch. I often skip my lunch to help out.”

For the duration of the emergency, Fietsam has limited the public’s access to the inside of the Clerk’s Office to one person at a time except for title company workers and landmen doing research on deeds.

Fietsam said she may continue the noon hour closure even after the pandemic passes.

“I really feel like we need to continue doing this,” Fietsam said. “Many other (county) offices close from noon to 1 p.m. It takes a lot of stress off. I can’t keep anxiety down when we have just three or four people in the office.”

The Faytette County District Clerk’s office also closes for the noon hour each day. The County office that does the most business with the public – the Tax Assessor-Collector’s Office (which handles vehicle registrations) – does not close for the noon hour.