Recordable instruments; modifying certain margin requirements. Effective date. Emergency.
Summary
SB2066 amends Oklahoma’s recording statute for county clerks, which governs how recordable instruments affecting real property must be formatted and accepted for filing. The bill clarifies the statutory reference in 19 O.S. 298 and updates the requirements for margins, legibility, paper size, and the placement of recording stamps and clerk information on documents submitted for recordation.
The measure also addresses instruments with many legal descriptions by requiring sorting of descriptions and imposing an additional $1 fee per legal description over 25 per page. It preserves the county clerk’s authority to reject nonconforming documents unless the filer reforms and refiles them the same business day, but it also requires clerks to accept certain nonconforming documents if they are original or certified copies, legible, reproducible, otherwise compliant, and accompanied by the statutory nonconforming-document fee. The bill further recognizes electronically submitted digitized images or electronic copies under Oklahoma’s Uniform Real Property Electronic Recording Act, and it excludes plats, UCC filings, and other documents governed by separate law.
Impact
SB2066 would amend 19 O.S. 2021, Section 298, affecting county clerks, real estate filers, lenders, title companies, and others who record deeds, mortgages, leases, assignments, and releases. It changes the filing standards for real property instruments by refining margin requirements, clarifying when stray markings do not invalidate a filing, and requiring clerks to add a page when there is insufficient room for stamps and recording information. It also confirms that electronic or digitized submissions can satisfy the original-document requirement when filed under the state’s electronic recording law, while leaving other categories such as plats and UCC filings outside this section.
Sentiment
The bill appears to have broad support and little visible opposition. It passed the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously 7-0 and then passed the full Senate 45-0, with the transcript reflecting unanimous consent to consider the emergency clause and no objections during the floor vote. The discussion suggests the measure was treated as a technical or administrative cleanup bill rather than a controversial policy change.
Contention
There is little evidence of substantive contention in the available record. The main policy issues are administrative: whether county clerks should be required to accept documents with minor margin defects, how much discretion clerks retain to reject nonconforming filings, and how to handle documents with numerous legal descriptions and the associated extra fee. The emergency clause and immediate effectiveness may have been procedural points, but no opposition was recorded in committee or on the floor.
Practice of medicine; modifying certain powers and duties of the Board of Medical Licensure and Supervision; modifying certain licensure requirements. Effective date. Emergency.
Relating to the status of certain documents or instruments concerning real or personal property; creating the criminal offenses of real property theft and real property fraud and establishing a statute of limitations for those offenses; harmonizing other statute of limitations provisions; increasing a criminal penalty.