Recording Statutes

A. Common Law
At common law, in nearly all cases, priority was given to the first grantee.

B. Purpose of Recording
Recording statutes require a grantee of real property to record her deed or other conveyance so
as to give notice to the world that title to certain property has been conveyed.

C. Types of Recording Statutes

There are three types of recording statutes: race, notice, and race notice.

1. Race Statutes
Under a pure race statute, whoever records first wins. Actual notice of a previous unrecorded
conveyance is irrelevant.

2. Notice Statutes
Notice and race-notice statutes are designed to protect a bona fide purchaser (“BFP”)—one who
gives valuable consideration and has no notice of the prior conveyance. Under a notice statute, a
BFP will prevail over a prior transferee who failed to record before the new conveyance.

3. Race-Notice Statutes
Under a race-notice statute, a subsequent BFP is protected only if she records before the prior
transferee. A typical race-notice statute provides: Any conveyance of an interest in land, other
than a lease for less than one year, shall not be valid against any subsequent purchaser for, value
without notice thereof, whose conveyance was first recorded.

D. Types of Notice
The three types of notice that preclude BFP status are actual, constructive, and inquiry notice.

1. Actual Notice
A transferee cannot be a BFP if she actually knew about a prior unrecorded conveyance.

2. Constructive Notice
Regardless of whether the transferee actually searched the records, she cannot be a BFP if the
prior conveyance was recorded in the chain of title.

3. Inquiry Notice
A transferee is considered to have knowledge of any facts that a reasonable inquiry into the
ownership status of the property would have revealed.

E. People Protected by Recording Statutes

1. Devisees Under Wills

Devisees under wills generally are BFPs. True or false?
.

2. Giftees of BFPs
People who receive real property as gifts from BFPs can generally assert the rights of a BFP
against prior transferees under the shelter rule.
F. Interests Protected by Recording Statutes
Recording statutes apply to short-term leases and interests arising by operation of law. True or
false?
Recording statutes apply to life estates, easements, and mortgages. True or false?
When mortgages are involved, recording statutes affect the, but not the, of the mortgages.

G. Title Searches
County governments generally keep indexing systems for people to search recorded real estate
records.

1. Tract Index System

In a tract index system, the searcher can view all of the recorded conveyances of a particular
piece of property in one place.

2. Grantor-Grantee Index System

When using a grantor-grantee index system, the searcher first uses the grantee
index to determine the previous owners of the property, and then uses the grantor index to
determine whether the property was conveyed or mortgaged to anyone outside of the
chain of title.