BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 679
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Date of Hearing: May 13, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Brian Maienschein, Chair
AB 679
(Travis Allen) - As Amended April 20, 2015
SUBJECT: Documents: recordation.
SUMMARY: Requires any document presented for county recording
to state the number
of pages to be recorded. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires any instrument, paper, or notice presented for
recordation to state the number
of pages to be recorded.
2)Allows the number of pages to be recorded to be stated on a
cover page or a sticker on the first page of the instrument,
paper, or notice.
EXISTING LAW requires the recorder of each county, upon payment
of proper fees and taxes, to accept for recordation any
instrument, paper, or notice that is authorized or required by
law to be recorded. These documents must comply with specified
standards respecting margins, quality of paper, print size and
color, and other related matters.
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FISCAL EFFECT: None
COMMENTS:
1)Bill Summary. This bill requires any document presented for
county recording to state the number of pages to be recorded,
which can be satisfied with a cover page or a sticker attached
to the first page of the filing. This bill is sponsored by
the author.
2)Author's Statement. According to the author, "This bill would
require that a count of all pages to be submitted be on the
front page of recorded documents to ensure that no documents
are lost. AB 679 will make it easier for individuals who are
submitting documents to be recorded by the county to ensure
all pages of a given document are present. This will,
therein, reduce the risk of lengthy and expensive court
procedures to restore or verify recorded documents."
3)Background. Existing law requires the recorder of each
county, upon payment of proper fees and taxes, to accept for
recordation any instrument, paper, or notice that is
authorized or required by law to be recorded. These documents
must comply with specified standards respecting margins,
quality of paper, print size and color, and other related
matters.
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This recording is done by a county-appointed official, the
County Recorder (or, in some counties, the Clerk-Recorder),
who officially records these documents and archives them
for public access. Documents that are commonly recorded
include payments of taxes or fees, filings of fictitious
business names, deeds, mortgage documents, easements, power of
attorney documents, liens, and any documents that affect the
ownership of any given property.
According to the author, when documents are processed by a
county recorder, pages can be lost or go missing, resulting in
lengthy and expensive court processes to restore the document
and/or provide a new copy. This bill would require that a
count of all pages to be submitted be on the front page of
recorded documents to ensure that no documents are lost.
4)Arguments in Support. None on file.
5)Arguments in Opposition. The California Land Title
Association (CLTA), which has taken an "oppose, unless
amended" position, writes:
"AB 679 could render some documents unrecordable or invalid
simply because a new pagination requirement is not fully met:
AB 679 would require documents presented to county recorders
for recordation to state the number of pages to be recorded
sticker affixed to the cover page of the document. While CLTA
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applauds the intent of the legislation, AB 679 as drafted
stands to unnecessarily complicate the recordation process and
could unintentionally call into question the recordability or
validity of documents that do not meet the statute's
requirements as currently drafted.
"Furthermore, AB 679 provides no safeguards against instances
of missing or inaccurate page counts, which could call into
question the recordability or validity of documents that have
not met the statute's requirements simply because the new
pagination count requirement created by this bill is not met
or is slightly inaccurate. Amendments need to be added that
make clear that failing to comply with this new requirement do
NOT render the document unrecordable or invalid.
"AB 679 could result in delays in real property transactions:
The new requirement, if it is interpreted to make a document
unrecordable or invalid could substantially slow down real
estate transactions if documents are rejected at the time of
presentation, or complicate consummated transactions if the
validity of documents is challenged after recordation due to
missing or inaccurate page counts. It is vital that AB 679
expressly states that if the page counts are missing or
inaccurate that the recordability or validity of the documents
not be affected.
"AB 679 should be optional for country recorders: Given that
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there has not been a hew and cry throughout California to
require pagination up to this point, CLTA asserts that such a
requirement is an isolated matter and county recorders,
subject to retooling of operations and procedures every time a
new recording requirement is created, should be free to adopt
or reject this new requirement. In short, counties should be
allowed to "opt in" to such a program. CLTA believes
amendments should be taken to make this opt in provision
clear."
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support Opposition
None on file California Land Title Association
Analysis Prepared by:Angela Mapp / L. GOV. / (916) 319-3958
AB 679
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