Transfer declarations name both sides of a sale

The form that travels with every deed

The deed is not the only paper that moves when property changes hands. A second one goes in with it, and that one usually goes to the assessor.

In Illinois a declaration goes to the recorder with the deed, signed by at least one seller and at least one buyer or their agents, and the recorder may not accept the deed for recording without it. 35 ILCS 200/31-25¹ ties the two together, except for the transfers Section 31-45 exempts. No declaration, no recording.

Here is the part that surprises searchers. Under 35 ILCS 200/31-30² the recorder does not record the declaration. The recorder marks it with the deed's document number and sends it on to the chief county assessment officer, who adds the latest assessed value and forwards it to the Department. So the record that carries the price is not sitting in the land records next to the deed. It left for the assessor.

The shape repeats. Minnesota's certificate of value routes to the assessor under Minn. Stat. 272.115³, and Indiana's form is reviewed by the county assessor before it is filed under IC 6-1.1-5.5-3⁴. Maryland is the exception. Under Md. Code, Real Prop. 3-104(g)(10)⁵ its intake sheet is recorded immediately after the instrument, though it is not part of the instrument and is not constructive notice of what the instrument says.

Which states require one

The requirement is a prerequisite to recording in most of these states, which is what makes the form hard to avoid.

Indiana requires all the parties to complete and sign a sales disclosure form before the conveyance is filed with the county auditor, and the county assessor reviews it first. IC 6-1.1-5.5-3 sets both steps. One form per parcel, except that contiguous parcels in a single taxing district may share one under subsection (h). Wisconsin, except as s. 77.255 provides, makes a real estate transfer return signed by both grantor and grantee a prerequisite to recording under Wis. Stat. 77.22(1)⁶. Since July 1, 2009 it has been filed electronically unless the secretary waives that for hardship.

Vermont delivers a property transfer return to the town clerk with the deed, and under 32 V.S.A. 9608(a)⁷ the clerk may not record the deed without one, except for transfers exempt under subdivision 9603(17). Maryland requires a complete intake sheet with each deed presented, under Real Prop. 3-104(g)(2). Minnesota asks for a certificate of value whenever real estate sells for more than 3,000 dollars, filed with the county auditor when the deed is presented, under Minn. Stat. 272.115, except as subdivisions 5, 6 and 7 provide. West Virginia goes further still: under W. Va. Code 11-22-6⁸ the clerk may not record any document, with or without stamps, unless a completed and verified sales listing form is tendered with it.

The District of Columbia requires a return executed by all parties with each taxable deed, under D.C. Code 47-903(b)⁹. New York requires a joint return by both grantor and grantee for each conveyance, tax due or not, other than a conveyance of an easement or license to a public utility, filed before the deed may be recorded, under Tax Law 1409(a)¹⁰. Iowa asks for a declaration of value signed by at least one seller or buyer under Iowa Code 428A.1(2)¹¹, and Connecticut for a return filed with the town clerk before recording under Conn. Gen. Stat. 12-497¹². Tennessee keeps no separate form in its statute. The grantee swears on the face of the deed, under Tenn. Code 67-4-409¹³, to the consideration or value, whichever is greater.

What the form carries

Several of these forms name both sides. And they state the price in a way the deed often does not.

Indiana's form must carry the name, address and telephone number of each transferor and transferee, and of whoever prepared it, under IC 6-1.1-5.5-5¹⁴. It states the total price, in money or in anything else, with the mailing address where the tax bills should go. Maryland's intake sheet names each grantor and grantee, states the type of instrument and the consideration (assumed mortgage debt included), and for a change of ownership gives a tax bill mailing address, under Real Prop. 3-104(g). West Virginia's sales listing form, under W. Va. Code 11-22-6, names grantor and grantee where the last deed in the chain represents the last transfer, and sets out alternatives when it does not; in every case it carries the property address, the parcel number and the consideration buyer and seller agree on.

Illinois is the one to read carefully. Its statute lists the value, parcel number, legal description, date, type of deed and property address under 35 ILCS 200/31-25. It does not list the parties' names among those items, though the declaration is signed by a buyer and a seller. And where an attorney or agent signs for sellers or buyers who hold the power of direction under an Illinois land trust, the declaration need identify only the trust, not the beneficiaries who direct it. The weakest name on the record is the one with the power of direction behind it.

Minnesota's certificate states the full actual consideration with liens assumed included, and carries the grantors' and grantees' Social Security or employer identification numbers, under Minn. Stat. 272.115. Wisconsin's return gives the value transferred and the fee under Wis. Stat. 77.22(2), and Vermont's must truly disclose the value or set out the basis of an exemption under 32 V.S.A. 9606(b)¹⁵. New York adds a layer for small residential buildings: where a buyer or seller is a limited liability company, the return is not accepted without the names and business addresses of its members and managers, under Tax Law 1409(a)(2). The doc stamps on the deed are a second check on the number, which the stamps give the real price takes up on its own.

The related-party flag

Two of these forms ask, on their face, whether the buyer and seller are related to each other.

Illinois's declaration must state whether the transfer is between related individuals or corporate affiliates, or is a compulsory transaction, under 35 ILCS 200/31-25(h). Indiana's form must state any family or business relationship between transferor and transferee, under IC 6-1.1-5.5-5. That is a question the deed itself never asks.

The flag matters because a transfer to an insider is one of the factors a court may weigh in deciding intent to defraud. Illinois counts it under 740 ILCS 160/5¹⁶. Indiana's list of factors under IC 32-18-2-14¹⁷ is shorter in this one respect: it has no factor for a transfer to an insider. A transfer after a judgment is a separate subject that the window that remains covers directly.

But read the flag for what it is. It is the filer's own answer, filled in by a party to the sale. A yes is a lead to follow. And a no settles nothing.

What it never shows, and who may see it

Every form holds something back, and the states disagree on how much of the rest the public may read.

The numbers come off first. Indiana makes a party's telephone and Social Security numbers confidential under IC 6-1.1-5.5-3(e). Wisconsin keeps Social Security and telephone numbers confidential under Wis. Stat. 77.265¹⁸, and its revenue department may make everything else on the returns public under subsection (9). Minnesota treats the identification numbers on a certificate as private or nonpublic data under Minn. Stat. 272.115. Vermont's tax commissioner may disclose any information on a return except Social Security, federal identification, e-mail and telephone numbers, under 32 V.S.A. 9606(e)(1), and under 32 V.S.A. 9610(b)¹⁹ the town clerk's copies are open to any member of the public.

The District of Columbia's return is not confidential unless a regulation provides otherwise, under D.C. Code 47-903(b)(3). Whether any such regulation exists is a question this page will not answer, because the statute does not reach it. Illinois is the same kind of silence: the statute says what the recorder and the assessor do with the declaration, and nothing about whether anyone else may read it. Indiana lists official uses, sales ratio studies and equalization among them, under IC 6-1.1-5.5-3, and says nothing of public inspection. This page will not guess at either one.

What Maryland's assessment office actually publishes from deeds is beyond what the statutes say, so it stays out of here too. And one thing is true of all of them. No form among these asks why the property changed hands. None asks where the money came from.

What this page does not do

It points at a form, and it tells you what the statute makes that form carry. What any county prints for the public is another matter.

None of this is legal advice, and nobody writing it is a lawyer. Whether a particular form is open to you, and in what shape, depends on a county office and sometimes on a regulation that is not in any of these sections. For Illinois and Indiana the statutes do not even settle whether the public may see the form at all, and this page has left that open rather than filled it in.

What a page can do is narrower. It can tell you that a sale leaves a second paper, which office that paper went to, and which of these states puts both sides and the price on its face. The county clerk or assessor who holds your debtor's form is the one who can tell you the rest.