Recording (real estate)

The vast majority of states in the United States employ a system of recording legal instruments (otherwise known as deeds registration) that affect the title of real estate as the exclusive means for publicly documenting land titles and interests. This system differs significantly from land registration systems, such as the Torrens system that have been adopted in a few states. The principal difference is that the recording system does not determine who owns the title or interest involved, which is ultimately determined through litigation in the courts. The system provides a framework for determining who the law will protect in relation to those titles and interests when a dispute arises.

The recording systems are established by state statute. They usually provide for the office of a recorder in each county or other jurisdiction. The names of these offices are usually the "Recorder of Deeds" or something similar. State statutes also prescribe the following elements:

A Grantor/Grantee title search attempts to locate records by searching the parties listed on a recorded instrument. One approach to conducting a full Grantor/Grantee title search starts by searching the grantor index in the County records and determining the name of the first recorded owner of title. This is usually the sovereign, which is the Federal Government or the Crown of the nation which owned a former colony now located within the United States. The search finds the grant from the sovereign to the first grantee. This is usually in the form of a patent. Then, the grantee's name is searched in the grantor index to find the deed by which it has subsequently conveyed the title, and so forth until no more grants are found. Liens or encumbrances granted by any of the parties shown on recorded instruments are also found in the search. Though theoretically accurate, this approach has practical difficulties due to there often being numerous grants from the sovereign. Therefore, an alternative method is to reverse the process, i.e. to search backward in the grantee index. This is done by beginning with the name of the person or entity who is thought to own the land to find the grantor to it. Then the grantee index is searched again to find the source of that grantor's title, and so on until you reach the grant from the sovereign. These linkages from grantor to grantee are called the "chain of title." The last grantee found is the "record title holder."

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