New Recording Rules

Our new recording procedures turn one week old today and our customers are beginning to get used to it, although with real estate being as slow as it is these days, not everyone comes in each week, so there is still a lot of learning going on. Here are the highlights of the new rules: (1) staple together all loose pages of each document; (2) put the documents in the order you want them recorded; (3) write the property address on the first page of all deeds, mortgages and discharges; (4) make sure the property is recorded land, not registered land; (5) if the originals are to be returned to your pickup box, write the box number in the lower left corner; (6) if you have a self-addressed stamped envelope for document return, write “ENV” in the lower left corner of the document; (7) only three sets of documents may be recorded at one time (if you have more than three, you can get right back in line); and (8) No cell phone use at the recording counter. Unfortunately, this is just one more set of registry-unique rules that seem to be a departure from the statewide move towards standardization. But, as we’ve stated before, these rules have been necessitated by the lack of preparation of some customers who routinely present themselves at the recording counter with stacks of loose papers with the expectation that we’ll put them in their proper order and grouping.