AAC
GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS Electronic Recording: Staying on track in an unpredictable time
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By Josh curtis Governmental Affairs Director and Cagney Kilgore AAC Law Clerk
ver the past couple of years, we have seen the pandemic shut down or significantly alter the way businesses handle their operations. One thing that didn’t shut down was recording documents in our clerk’s and recorder’s office. Many Circuit Judges were shutting down their courtrooms. Court house officials were looking to keep staff safe and handle county business in different ways. Circuit Clerks and Recorders who utilize electronic recording were prepared to continue recording documents. Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson pushed back on shutting everything down because he knew commerce had to continue. County recorders play a significant role in our state’s economy. Recording business transactions such as deeds, mortgages, liens, and plats could not come to a sudden halt. Gov. Hutchinson said no to shelter in place to allow critical businesses to continue their operations. eRecording allowed for those businesses to continue recording necessary real property documents so that little to no impact was felt. Each county is unique, just like each state is unique. One thing unique about Arkansas is we have a constitutional office that is devoted to collecting delinquent property taxes. The State Land Commissioner’s Office produces tens of thousands of records each year, and they have always recorded these the old-fashioned way. Arkansas Land Commissioner Tommy Land recently met with members of the Electronic Recording Commission and committed to begin e-recording these records July 1 of this year. This is not the first time Commissioner Land has embarked on an innovative project. Last year he introduced an online auction for properties not sold at the live auction. Having an online auction increases the number of buyers competing for these properties and has proven to be a huge success. This allows these properties to be returned to the tax rolls more quickly. We applaud the commitment from Commissioner Land to enter this partnership to implement electronic recording. This will be beneficial for the counties, the Commissioner’s Office, and all Arkansans we serve collectively. What is e-recording? E-recording is the name given to the process of creating, managing, and safeguarding digital copies of official public information. It’s far more complicated than simply scanning documents because these records are legally binding and often highly valuable, such as land ownership records. Brian Blackman, vice president and general counsel 20
for Allegiance Title Co., said, “We love e-recording because of the efficiency it offers to our industry, as well as to the consumer. The ease with which it allows us to get documents of record helps to improve the customer experience and decrease risk for those involved in the transaction. Most consumers complete only a few real estate transactions in their lifetime, so the overall process is foreign to many of them. In my view, anything we can do to simplify that process, such as e-recording, is a huge win.” The Electronic Recording Commission was created in 2007 under the Uniform Real Property Electronic Recording Act (URPERA). This Commission is appointed by the Governor and works together supporting the URPERA. They consider the views and resources of all interested parties as it pertains to the county recorders, title industry, financial industry, legal community, and the private sector. The Commission works to develop standards and practices that work in harmony with other jurisdictions. Once developed and approved, it will implement and carry forward the most recent standards of the Property Records Industry Association (PRIA). The Commission will review and make recommendations for possible policy and statutory changes that would bring statewide continuity to the electronic recording process so that we are promoting the most efficient and secure services to all citizens. Electronic recording is the way of the future, and with more than 60 percent of counties e-recording in our state, Arkansas is keeping step and outpacing many of our Southern counterparts (only 43 percent of counties in Mississippi e-record and only 38 percent in Texas, for example). Every state in the nation allows documents to be e-recorded in some fashion, but the type of documents e-recorded and the extent of each state’s e-recording capabilities vary significantly. E-recording is not yet mandatory in any state, but there are almost 15 states in which every county accepts e-recorded documents. The most common type of e-recorded documents are real estate records thanks to the passage of the URPERA in 38 states and the District of Columbia. URPERA empowers county officials to officially accept and record electronic real estate documents because the legislation equates electronic documents and signatures with original paper documents and wet ink signatures. Act 3 of the third extraordinary session of the 90th General Assembly moved the Electronic Recording Commission out from under the Bureau of Legislative Research and appointed the Association of Arkansas Counties to support its mission. This was one of many bills the Commission worked on with the legislature to keep the standards and practices of county recorders in this state updated with the standards and practices COUNTY LINES, WINTER 2022
