Powers and Responsibilities

The county recorder is defined statutorily in Indiana pursuant to Indiana Code § 36-2-11-1, et. seq. Most of that code section consists of administrative requirements for dealing with different types of documents, for the formatting of documents, and on interaction with other offices of local government (such as the auditor). Some of the more important statutes for our purposes set forth the procedures for recording documents and the record-keeping requirements attendant upon those procedures.

The recorder must record all instruments in the order in which they are received in the records office, and establish a procedure that allows the public to access those records, but also protects the records from loss or damage. This procedure must be posted publicly. [1] The date the document is received, the names of the parties to the document, a description of the premises in question, and the fees paid to record the document must be kept by the recorder in an entry book. [2] In addition, the recorder must keep a record of each volume of instruments recorded which is indexed by grantor in alphabetical order, cross referenced to the grantee, and vice-versa. [3] The recorder must also maintain separate indexes of deeds for real estate and mortgages on real estate, indexed alphabetically by name of the grantor / mortgagor and grantee / mortgagee, and must include a concise description of the real property, the date of the deed or mortgage, and the number or letter of the book and page where recorded.[4] The formatting requirements of any given instrument, and exceptions to those requirements, are also established by statute.[5] Finally, the statute permits the recording of memorandum of leases, which are documents which consist of a summary of the important parts of a lease in land.[6] The reasoning is that, while parties may wish to maintain confidentiality as to many parts of a lease, one or both parties may wish to record the lease so that, in the event the land is transferred or mortgaged, the lessee’s rights may be preserved.

The recorder may not record a deed of partition, a conveyance of land (deed, mortgage, etc.), or an affidavit of transfer unless the auditor of the county has stamped on it “duly entered for taxation subject to final acceptance for transfer”, “not taxable”, or “duly entered for taxation.[7]” This ensures that all transfers of land which result in a taxable event or change the person who will pay the tax are accounted for by the auditor’s office.

[1] Ind. Code § 36-2-11-8.

[2] Ind. Code § 36-2-11-9; this is further defined at Ind. Code § 32-21-2-10.

[3] Ind. Code § 36-2-11-12(a).

[4] Ind. Code § 36-2-11-12(b).

[5] See Ind. Code §§ 36-2-11-15 through 36-2-11-16, and § 36-2-11-26; also see I.C. § 36-2-7.5-1, et. seq. on regulating recording documents containing social security numbers.

[6] Ind. Code § 36-2-11-20.

[7] Ind. Code § 36-2-11-14.