Simplifile, a provider of real estate document collaboration and recording technologies for lenders, settlement agents and counties, reports that it is now electronically recording Land Court documents in the commonwealth of Massachusetts for the first time.
In Massachusetts, about 80% of real property is “recorded land.” The state’s recorded land department handles the record keeping for this recorded land.
The remaining 20%, called “registered land,” is subject to stricter policies and managed by the registered land department, also known as the Land Court.
Land registration documents related to registered land are commonly referred to as “Land Court documents.”
Until recently, Massachusetts law dictated that recorders must retain original, hard-copy Land Court documents, making electronic recording of those documents impossible.
Early this year, however, the governor of Massachusetts signed into law H.B.3862, overturning the requirement and allowing registers of deeds throughout the state to e-record Land Court documents for the first time.
Hampden County, Norfolk County and Southern Essex District were the first Massachusetts jurisdictions to record Land Court documents on April 12. All three jurisdictions have been e-recording recorded land documents for years and were eager to extend the benefits of e-recording to the Land Court.
“In 2004, the Hampden County Registry of Deeds was the first governmental agency on the East Coast to perform an electronic recording,” says Donald E. Ashe, register of deeds for Hampden County, in a release. “On April 12, 2017, we once again made history by being the first registry in the commonwealth of Massachusetts to record a registered land document. These historic events would not be possible without Simplifile’s hard work, dedication and innovation in the field of electronic recording of documents.”