Concerning county recorder policies and procedures including the imposition of fees and the establishment of funds, and including transition and effective date provisions

Under current law, county recorders are required to execute a 28E agreement with other counties to implement a county land record information system in accordance with 2005 Iowa Acts, chapter 179, section 101, subsection 1, as amended by 2021 Iowa Acts, chapter 126, section 2. The bill amends this provision to require county recorders to enter into a 28E agreement to create and implement the electronic services system, a statewide electronic county land record management system. The bill defines “electronic services system” as the organization formed under the 28E agreement. The electronic services system is also the name of the actual electronic system implemented to accept, manage, and make available records filed with a county recorder. Several sections of Code chapter 331, subchapter V, part 3, pertaining to the county recorder are amended to specify certain requirements for documents or instruments submitted to a county recorder for filing either in person or electronically. Many of these requirements pertain to required recording references, indexing, formatting, text, margin sizes, and document size limitations with an emphasis on legibility. References to the county land record information system are removed throughout Code chapter 331 and replaced with “electronic services system”. Under current law, in addition to the $5 county recorders collect for each page of a document or instrument filed in the county recorder’s office, $1 is collected for the county recorder’s records management fund, and $1 is collected for the county recorder’s electronic transaction fund. The bill changes the fees to a flat fee of $10 for each page filed or recorded in the recorder’s office, with a maximum recording fee of $500 for or more pages filed. From the total fee of $10 per page of a document or instrument filed with a recorder, $2 is transferred to the recorder’s technology advancement fund and $3 is transferred to the recorder’s electronic services system fund. The bill eliminates the county recorder’s records management funds and creates recorder’s technology advancement funds to be used for the following purposes: maintaining and improving equipment, software, and systems; preserving and maintaining archived physical and electronic documents or instruments; converting physical documents to electronic documents; and education and training for advancing technology. The bill eliminates the county recorder’s electronic transaction funds and creates recorder’s electronic services funds.605B for the following purposes: to enable electronic filing for recording documents; to provide electronic access to recorded public documents; to receive electronic payments to process electronic documents for recording; to implement security and redaction systems to protect personally identifiable information; to integrate with other appropriate real property filing or management systems; to establish standards for processing, recording, indexing, accessing, and archiving documents for electronic county land record management systems; and to develop a notification system for users when electronic filings or records are associated with the user’s name, property, or other recorded filing information. The recorder or the electronic services system shall make available any information required by the county auditor or auditor of state concerning the moneys collected from fees and the uses for which such fees are expended. The county treasurer must transfer moneys remaining in the county recorder’s records management fund to the recorder’s technology advancement fund and moneys remaining in the county recorder’s electronic transaction fund to the recorder’s electronic services fund on the effective date of the bill.605B(1). The electronic services system may collect a fee of not more than $3 per recorded document, along with any service charges associated with a credit or debit card payment, to receive and process a document or instrument. Moneys collected from these fees by the electronic services system must be used for the same purposes as the recorder’s electronic services fund. The electronic services system cannot charge a fee for viewing, accessing, or printing records and cannot provide access to records on a batch basis. The bill limits tort liability of government subdivisions by excluding contractors hired by the governing board of the electronic services systems from government employees. The bill creates a process for a county recorder to decline acceptance of a physical or electronic document and to provide information to the filer to correct the defect. A recorder’s ability to collect an additional recording fee of $10 per document to accept nonconforming documents is eliminated. The information required to be included by a recorder who is filing and indexing documents or instruments into the electronic county land record management system is outlined and includes how reference numbers must be determined and applied to filings each calendar year, the use of only numeric references containing no more than eight digits preceded by a county two-digit code and four-digit year, and indexing requirements for certain recorded documents associated with the recording. Additionally, the following shall be indexed if known: a parcel identification number; a legal description and parsed location information including platted and unplatted information; and any additional parcel identifiers used by a recorder. The indexing and recording requirements outlined in the bill take effect January 1, 2026. Additionally, a recorder must note in the index the exact hour, minute, and second a document or instrument is recorded.612. Specific text sizing and formatting along with page sizing, index legend requirements, and other required information for surveys, plats, subdivision plats, and monument preservation certificates, with an emphasis on legibility, are provided.8 submitted electronically through the electronic services system.606B(2) and outlines the location on the first page where the information must be provided when filing a document with the county recorder along with providing guidelines for including designated space for a county recorder’s use.