Deed Records - What You Need to Know
Deed records are maintained by Recorders of Deeds. Being elected officials, Deed Recorders serve in an area that is equal to a county. They may be known by other designations, such as County Recorders, Registrars of Titles, or Deed Registrars.
Deed records can be found among county court records, especially in areas when it is the County Court Clerk who serves as the Recorder of Deeds.
Although vital records (birth, death, etc.), and even county tax records, may have been recorded by multiple offices through the years, by its very nature only a single office can serve as Deed Recorder.
Deed Records - Office of the Deed Recorder
This office was created so that if anyone wanted to know who owns a certain property, there would only be one place where they could inquire.
A single recording office largely solves the problem of multiple claims of ownership over a single property.
Even when the Deed Recorder holds a separate position from the County Clerk, he may also maintain other documents not directly connected to real estate. This happens when the Deed Records office is used for public posting.
So don't be surprised to find the following documents among deed records even when they are kept separate from county clerk records:
- Corporate Charters
- Military discharges
- Marriage License Applications
- Court Rulings
Deed records only involve freehold transactions, that is, the transfer of property from one party to another. Deeds should be capable of being recorded as a relatively permanent transaction. That's why leases do not qualify, and why leasehold records are not part of deed records.
Although there may be only one Deed Recorder, the office may maintain multiple indexes, such as:
- Grantor/Grantee Index
- Tract Index
- Plat Map Index
- Mortgages
- Releases
- Liens
Deed records are kept in the US using either of two systems:
Torrens - system of registration where the owner receives a Certificate of Title when the transaction is legal and completed (e.g., New York, Ohio, Washington, North Carolina, etc.)
Common Law - system developed by the old courts based on common customs and rulings throughout the centuries, many of which were unwritten
Deed Records - Legal Description
The law requires that a Legal Description be included among the real property or deed records. This is a detailed description of the land that, in America, falls into any of these five categories:
- Bounded-by Description
- Metes/Bounds
- Lot/Block Survey or Lot Shown on Subdivision Map
- Aliquot of US Public Land Survey
- Strip Description
As with most records searches, it's better to look for deed records at the county level rather than using national online databases. A state records search may turn up a deed list, but the complete deed records will be found at the Deed Recorder's office at the county level. Records brokers offer deed records searches online, so do historical or genealogy societies. You can also find abstracts of deed records published by certain bookstores within the state.
Next Article: Land Records - 5 Tips to Track Down What You Need