Industry News
September 16, 2008
List of Recordable Non-Title Documents Grows
Legislative policy continues to promote the recorders’ office as a public bulletin board for notices even though the notices do not impact title to real property. The latest notice eligible to be recorded is a notice of “Notice of an Independent Solar Energy Producer Contract” found in Assembly Bill 2863. The bill is currently awaiting action by Governor Schwarzenegger.
Since 2002 a whole series of laws have become effective which permit the recording of notices unrelated to title. These notices include a “Notice of Violation of the Coastal Act”, a “Notice of Enhanced Protection Agreement”, “Notice of Airport in Vicinity”, and a “Notice of Noncompliance with Safe Drinking Water Requirements”. Often the Legislature has specified that the notice does not constitute a defect, lien or encumbrance. The apparent hope in enacting these laws is that recording will lead to disclosure. Of course there are a host of required disclosures which are not recorded, the best known being the Transfer Disclosure Statement and the Natural Hazard Disclosure Statement. If the current trend continues it is likely that more notices will be added in the future to the list of those eligible to be recorded.
