BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 679|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 679
Author: Travis Allen (R)
Amended: 8/18/15 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE GOVERNANCE & FIN. COMMITTEE: 7-0, 7/8/15
AYES: Hertzberg, Nguyen, Beall, Hernandez, Lara, Moorlach,
Pavley
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 52-14, 6/1/15 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Documents: recordation
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill requires a county recorder, upon recording
any instrument, paper, or notice as authorized by law, to
endorse upon the instrument the number of pages.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Requires county recorders (or, in some counties,
clerk-recorders) to accept and record certain documents and
archive them for public access upon payment of proper fees and
taxes.
AB 679
Page 2
2)Requires county recorders to indicate, on each document they
receive for recordation, the year, month, day, hour and minute
of its reception and the amount of fees for recording and the
name of the person at whose request it is recorded.
This bill:
1)Deletes the requirement that the recorder endorse the name of
the person at whose request an instrument is recorded.
2)Requires a county recorder, upon recording any instrument,
paper, or notice as authorized by law, to endorse upon the
instrument the number of pages in addition to the year, month,
day, hour and minute it was received.
Background
Sometimes, pages of recorded documents become lost. When it is
unclear how many pages were originally in a recorded document,
lost pages can result in lengthy and expensive court processes
to restore the document to its original status, or to obtain new
copies. To avoid this scenario, some county clerks' offices,
such as San Diego County's, indicate not only when they received
each document, but also its total number of pages, by affixing a
label with this information to the front of the document.
To save consumers and taxpayers time and money, the author of AB
679 asserts that state law should be changed to require all
county clerks to indicate "the number of pages to be recorded"
on each document they receive, in addition to the year, month,
AB 679
Page 3
day, hour and minute it was received.
Comments
1)Purpose of the bill. 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,
thereby reducing the incidence of lengthy and expensive court
procedures to restore or verify recorded documents. Endorsing
a document's total number of pages up front, rather than after
a discrepancy arises, will also reduce the administrative
burden and cost of verifying recorded documents and making
copies.
2)What's new? Existing law permits county clerks to note the
number of pages in recorded documents and at least some county
clerks are already doing so. Many county clerks also charge
by the page and therefore have to count the number of pages
they record as a practical matter. It is unclear why a change
to state law is necessary, if counties already can reflect the
page numbers in recorded documents in the manner suggested by
this bill if they so choose.
3)Mandate. The Legislative Counsel's Office says that because
this bill imposes new duties upon the county recorder, this
bill imposes a state-mandated local program. But, this bill
disclaims the state's responsibility for reimbursing counties
for compliance with AB 679; this disclaimer is consistent with
the California Constitution, which provides that the state
does not have to reimburse local governments where local
agencies or school districts have the authority to levy
service charges, fees, or assessments sufficient to pay for
the program mandated by the law (Article XIIIB).
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
SUPPORT: (Verified9/4/15)
AB 679
Page 4
None received
OPPOSITION: (Verified9/4/15)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 52-14, 6/1/15
AYES: Achadjian, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom, Bonta,
Brough, Brown, Calderon, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu,
Dababneh, Dahle, Beth Gaines, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gray, Grove,
Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Kim,
Lackey, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis, Melendez,
Mullin, Obernolte, Olsen, Patterson, Perea, Quirk,
Ridley-Thomas, Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Thurmond, Wagner,
Waldron, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Atkins
NOES: Alejo, Cooley, Cooper, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Cristina
Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Levine, Medina, Mark Stone,
Ting, Weber
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bonilla, Burke, Campos, Daly, Gallagher,
Gipson, Gordon, Jones-Sawyer, Mayes, McCarty, Nazarian,
O'Donnell, Rendon, Rodriguez
Prepared by:Toren Lewis / GOV. & F. / (916) 651-4119
9/4/15 17:25:08
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