Governor Newsom Signs Bills Pertaining to Recording Fees and Post-Foreclosure Sale Bidding Process

With one day left before his September 30 deadline to act on bills sent to him by the Legislature, Governor Newsom has signed 738 bills into law this year. Among the bills he has signed more recently are two measures of interest to the title industry.

The first is Assembly Bill 2224 (Hadwick), Chapter 292, which takes effect January 1, 2027. The bill will increase the base fee county recorders charge to record documents and preserves the current framework for electronic recording. The fee for recording and indexing a document will be $15 for the first page and $4 for each additional page, up from the current maximum of $10 and $3. The fees may not exceed the reasonable costs of the recorder's office for providing the services. The new law also eliminates several ancillary fees, including the charges for additional references to previously recorded documents, additional names requiring indexing, and nonconforming page sizes. 

Assembly Bill 2224 also preserves the current framework of the Electronic Recording Delivery Act (ERDA) by repealing a January 1, 2027 sunset of certain provisions contained within the ERDA. The new law also requires each county recorder collecting the recording fee to implement an electronic recording system by January 1, 2028, which is expected to extend electronic recording to the remaining counties that don't yet offer it.

The Governor also signed Assembly Bill 1957 (Pacheco), effective January 1, 2027. AB 1957 will revise the process that lets eligible tenants and certain nonprofit and public entities buy one-to-four-unit residential property after a trustee's sale. The process enacted under the bill will apply only to sales under a first lien deed of trust or mortgage. When the bidder is a tenant, the property must also have a valid certificate of occupancy and a fair market value at or below the applicable FHA loan limit. The new law eliminates the "prospective owner-occupant" bidder category, and provides that tenant bidders must agree to occupy the property for at least one year under a deed restriction in the trustee's deed. Trustees may rely on bidder eligibility affidavits without a duty to investigate them and are not liable for claims arising from them. Trustees must also update the tenant notice language in their notices of sale.

Bulletin 26/27-23