Community Preservation Funding

There are bills pending in both the House and the Senate that would increase the size of the surcharge imposed on documents recorded at the registry of deeds to fund the state's contribution to the Community Preservation Act (CPA).

Enacted in 2000, the CPA allowed residents of cities and towns to vote to increase their property taxes by a small percentage with the money thus raised dedicated to open space preservation, recreation uses, historic preservation or affordable housing. As an incentive, the state created a matching fund that would contribute to each the amount raised by each community.

To fund its contribution, the state legislature imposed a surcharge on documents recorded at the registry of deeds. For most documents, the surcharge is $20. For municipal lien certificates it's $10. There is no surcharge on homestead declarations.

House Bill 2463 would increase the CPA surcharge to $75 per document ($35 for MLCs). That means the total recording fee for a discharge would go from $75 ($50 fee, $20 CPA surcharge, $5 technology surcharge) to $130 ($50 fee, $75 CPA surcharge, $5 tech surcharge). This bill would be effective 120 days after enactment.

Senate Bill 1618 would increase the CPA surcharge to $50 ($25 for MLCs). The mortgage discharge would cost $105 ($50 fee, $50 CPA surcharge, $5 tech surcharge) under this bill which would be effective December 31, 2019.

These bills also apply different treatment to documents mailed to the registry. Under the House bill, the surcharge increase would go apply on the day the document was received by the registry regardless of when it was mailed. Under the Senate bill, the surcharge increase would apply based on the date of the postmark bearing the document regardless of when the registry received it. In other words, if your document was postmarked the day before the increase went into effect but the registry received it three days after the increase went into effect, the registry would charge the old fee for the document.

It seems likely that the CPA surcharge will be increased this year. How much the increase will be and how and when it will be implemented should be decided in the coming weeks.