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Committee backs measure requiring grantee acknowledgement on certain deeds; exception for low-value parent-to-child transfers
Summary
A committee substitute to Senate Bill 102 would modify deed forms to require a notarized acknowledgement from grantees that they accept the conveyance; the committee approved the substitute and reported it to the full Senate.
A committee substitute for Senate Bill 102 would require a deed conveying real property to include evidence that the grantee has acknowledged and accepted the conveyance, committee counsel told senators.
Committee counsel said under current law deeds do not require evidence that a transfer has been accepted by the grantee, creating situations in which people who thought they were owners discovered after the fact that title had already passed to a different party. Counsel summarized the scope: "Under existing law, deeds do not require any evidence that a transfer of property has been accepted by the grantee, leading to instances in which owners of property that is encumbered by environmental obligations, court orders, tax arrears, and other ongoing obligations transfer those properties and obligations to unknowing recipients."
The committee substitute adds language from the sponsor clarifying that transfers between parents and children with consideration of less than $2,000 would be exempt from the notarized acknowledgement requirement.
A witness who identified herself as representing an abandoned properties coalition described local cases that motivated the bill, saying some transfers have been used by "bad actors" who deed property to quasi-defunct nonprofit organizations or to unsuspecting recipients to escape obligations and cited examples of tenants discovering that the legal owner had changed.
Senators asked about the bill's timing and effective date. Counsel told the committee the substitute would take effect 90 days after passage and apply to transfers that occur after that date; senators and counsel discussed whether the operative date should be the date a deed was signed or the date of recordation.
The committee adopted the substitute and voted to report the committee substitute for Senate Bill 102 to the full Senate with a recommendation that it pass.
