Assessor, recorder, clerk: which office keeps what

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The same material, read aloud and told more loosely than it is written. Nothing is said in it that this page does not also say.

Five offices, one parcel

A single piece of land shows up in five places, and the offices are often strangers to each other.

Follow one parcel and it passes through the property appraiser, the recorder, the court clerk, the Secretary of State and the tax collector. In Broward County those are not one agency wearing five hats. Recording is the Records Division's job and not its own, the property appraiser says, noting that the Records Division and the Clerk of Courts are not affiliated with the Property Appraiser's Office. A search that comes back wrong has often asked the right question of the wrong desk.

Which desk also changes with the state. In Florida the clerk of the circuit court is the recorder for the county. Fla. Stat. 28.222(1)¹ makes the clerk the recorder of all instruments the clerk is authorized to record. In New York the recording officer is the county clerk, or the register in a county that has one, and RPL 290(4)² defines it that way; for the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens the New York City Department of Finance says the City Register holds those records, and Staten Island records go to the Richmond County Clerk.

Almost every state names the land records office differently, which is the first thing that trips a searcher. It is the county recorder in California and Nevada under Cal. Code Civ. Proc. 697.310³ and NRS 17.150⁴, the register of deeds in Michigan under MCL 600.2803⁵, the registry of deeds in Massachusetts and Maine under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 236, 4⁶ and 14 M.R.S. 4651-A⁷, and the town clerk in Connecticut and Vermont under Conn. Gen. Stat. 52-380a⁸ and 12 V.S.A. 2904⁹. In Pennsylvania and Delaware the court office is the prothonotary: Pa.R.C.P. 3027(a)¹⁰ has the prothonotary enter a revival in the judgment index, and 10 Del. C. 4711¹¹ has the prothonotary minute and certify a renewal agreement on the record of the judgment. These are collected in the glossary of national terms.

The roll: who the county taxes

A list of who gets the tax bill is what the property appraiser keeps, and that list is not the deed.

In Florida the tax roll and the assessment roll are the same document. Fla. Stat. 197.102(1)(i)¹² says so: the roll the property appraiser prepares under chapter 193 and certifies under 193.122. That certified roll goes to the tax collector under Fla. Stat. 197.322(1)¹³, and within 20 working days the collector sends a notice to each taxpayer on it whose address is known, under 197.322(3).

By design, the roll's owner line trails the deed. Broward's appraiser says it changes ownership records from deeds recorded with the county's Records Division, does not recognize unrecorded deeds, and processes a recorded deed within 48 business hours unless there is an issue with it. It also says its data is for tax roll purposes only and may not be appropriate for other uses, and that it has no legal authority to decide whether a deed is fraudulent. So the owner on the roll is the owner of the last recorded deed the office has gotten to, and no further back than that.

Two different people are what the statute itself contemplates. Fla. Stat. 197.502(4)(a)¹⁴ names the legal titleholder of record and, separately, the person to whom the property was assessed on the tax roll, and it lets a tax deed notice go to the roll address only when they are the same person. 197.502(4)(f) lists the assessed person on his own. A long owner list can also get shortened: Broward says when it cannot fit everyone it lists some owners and then ETAL, which means 'and others'. For how to read the rest of that line, see what a property roll shows.

The recorder: what was signed and filed

Numbered and dated the moment they come in, the instruments themselves are what the recorder keeps.

Florida records everything in one series. Fla. Stat. 28.222(2) calls it Official Records, and the clerk enters each instrument in a register at the time of filing with its filing number, date and hour, kind and party names, then keeps an alphabetical index, direct and inverse. What goes in is broad: deeds, mortgages, notices or claims of lien, notices of levy and tax warrants under 28.222(3)(a); notices of lis pendens and judgments, including those of United States courts sitting in Florida, under 28.222(3)(b) and (c); and notices of federal tax liens under 28.222(3)(e). New York records a conveyance in the office of the clerk of the county where the land lies under RPL 291¹⁵, and the recording officer keeps alphabetical indexes of grantors and of grantees under RPL 316¹⁶.

Recording is what protects the transfer, which is why the roll's reluctance to recognize an unrecorded deed is more than a filing habit. In Florida an unrecorded conveyance or mortgage is not good against creditors or later purchasers for value without notice, under Fla. Stat. 695.01(1)¹⁷. In New York an unrecorded conveyance is void against a later good-faith purchaser for value, from the same seller, whose own conveyance is recorded first, under RPL 291. An unrecorded deed can be real between the two people who signed it and still lose to the next buyer who records.

Online front doors differ by place. New York City's Department of Finance says ACRIS shows recorded documents for Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx and Brooklyn from 1966 on. Broward's recording division calls itself the county's statutory repository for Official Records. And the Department of Finance adds a caution worth repeating: reviewing recorded documents is not necessarily the same as a title search.

The court clerk: judgments, and in some states the lien itself

A docket is what the court clerk keeps, and in several states an entry there is what creates the lien.

A progress docket is what the Florida clerk keeps under Fla. Stat. 28.211¹⁸, noting every paper filed and every step taken in each case, with an alphabetical index. Final judgments in Florida civil actions must be recorded in the official records under Fla. Stat. 28.29¹⁹. But the lien on land is a separate act: it comes from recording a certified copy under Fla. Stat. 55.10²⁰, with the lienholder's address, and 28.29 says that certified copy is recorded only when someone presents it with the fee. One clerk is recorder and docket-keeper both, and the two roles still produce two different records.

New York runs the lien through the clerk's docket. CPLR 5018²¹ has the clerk docket a money judgment immediately after the judgment-roll is filed, and from docketing in the county where the land lies, CPLR 5203²² makes a transfer of the debtor's interest ineffective against the creditor. South Dakota docks the lien at the clerk of the circuit court under SDCL 15-16-7²³, North Carolina on the clerk of superior court's judgment docket under N.C. Gen. Stat. 1-234²⁴, Virginia on the clerk's judgment lien docket under Va. Code 8.01-458²⁵, Georgia at the clerk of the superior court under O.C.G.A. 9-12-86²⁶, and an Arkansas district court judgment in the circuit clerk's judgment records under Ark. Code 16-65-117²⁷.

Elsewhere the lien needs the land records office instead of the court. California wants an abstract recorded with the county recorder under Cal. Code Civ. Proc. 697.310. For real estate not registered under the land titles Act, Illinois wants a transcript, certified copy or memorandum filed with the recorder under 735 ILCS 5/12-101²⁸. And Michigan wants a notice of judgment lien recorded with the register of deeds under MCL 600.2803. Same goal, different building.

The Secretary of State: entities and UCC

Companies are what the state office keeps, and in Florida the judgment lien on personal property as well.

A Florida LLC is formed by delivering articles of organization to the Department of State. Fla. Stat. 605.0201(1)²⁹ and (2) require the name, the street and mailing addresses of the principal office, and the registered agent; 605.0201(3) says the articles may name managers or members but need not. So the state record of a company can name no human being at all. A Florida judgment lien on personal property is also acquired here, by filing a judgment lien certificate with the Department of State under Fla. Stat. 55.202³⁰, and 55.203 keeps each filing, with its date and time, in a public internet database indexed by debtor name.

UCC filings split off into their own registry. Fla. Stat. 679.5011(1)³¹ sends most Florida financing statements to the Florida Secured Transaction Registry, the centralized database defined in 679.527(1)(a), with fixture filings, as-extracted collateral and timber to be cut going to the clerk of the circuit court instead. New York UCC 9-501(a)³² sends financing statements to the secretary of state, except fixture filings, as-extracted collateral, timber and cooperative interests, which go to the office that records mortgages; under 9-501(c) that is the county clerk, or the city register in the four city boroughs. New York's Department of State says it keeps Article 9 financing statements and notices of federal tax liens.

A federal tax lien notice goes wherever state law points for the property. 26 U.S.C. 6323(f)(1)³³(A) puts it in the one office the state designates where the property sits, and 6323(f)(2) places real property at its physical location and personal property at the taxpayer's residence when the notice is filed. One lien, and its home address depends on what it attaches to.

The tax collector: what is owed on the roll

A money side of the roll is what the tax collector holds, not the ownership side.

Fla. Stat. 197.332(1)³⁴ gives the Florida tax collector the authority and the obligation to collect all taxes shown on the roll, and to collect delinquent taxes by selling tax certificates on real property. At that sale each certificate goes to the bidder who will pay the taxes, interest, costs and charges and demand the lowest rate of interest, not above the maximum chapter 197 allows, under Fla. Stat. 197.432(6)³⁵. Broward's appraiser is blunt about the division: its office does not send tax bills or collect payments, and the Broward County Tax Collector does.

A creditor can ask the collector for the numbers. Under Fla. Stat. 197.344(2)³⁶, on or before May 1 each year a mortgage holder, lienholder or contract-for-deed vendee who files a property description and pays a $2 charge may request and receive the delinquent taxes and certificates on that property. And the thing the collector holds outranks almost everything recorded against the land: Fla. Stat. 197.122(1)³⁷ makes property taxes a first lien, superior to all other liens, from January 1 of the tax year. That is the quiet lien most searches miss, because nobody recorded it.

Which one decides priority

Priority comes from the order of recording and from statutes, and where records conflict, from a judge. Never from the roll.

In Florida an instrument counts as recorded, and as notice to everyone, when the clerk affixes its official register number, under Fla. Stat. 695.11³⁸; the same section gives the lower number priority over the higher one in the same series. New York runs on delivery time: RPL 317³⁹ records each instrument in the order delivered and treats it as recorded from the time of delivery. So the stamp, not the date typed on the face of the paper, is what settles the race.

Some claims rank by their own rule rather than the recording order. Florida property taxes are superior to all other liens under Fla. Stat. 197.122(1). Florida personal property judgment liens rank by the date and time of filing with the Department of State under Fla. Stat. 55.202. A federal tax lien does not bind purchasers, secured lenders or judgment lien creditors until its notice is filed, under 26 U.S.C. 6323(a).

None of this is decided by the roll. Broward's appraiser says its data is for tax roll purposes, and that only a judge can decide who has the better title when the public records conflict as to ownership. A reader who wants to confirm any single line rather than trust it can see how to check any line yourself. The question tells you which office to open, and whom to believe when two of them disagree is the one question a page cannot answer for you.