UT House Bill 46

Legislation

State: Utah
Signed: March 21, 2011

Effective: May 09, 2011
Chapter: 88

Summary

House Bill 46, lengthy legislation affecting county recorders, provides a fix to existing statute that presented a barrier to electronic notarization and recordation of real property documents, and otherwise allows for the recordation of documents without a legible Notary seal if another statute clearly does not require a seal to be present.

Affects

Amends Sections 17-21-20, 57-1-13, 57-1-45, and 57-3-106 of the Utah Code Annotated

Changes

Clarifies that except as otherwise provided by statute, a document presented to a county recorder for recordation must include the legible imprint of a Notary seal.
Clarifies that a boundary line agreement functioning as a quitclaim deed must contain a proper acknowledgment of each signature in order to be recorded.
Clarifies that a judgment, abstract of judgment, or separate information statement of the judgment creditor does not require an acknowledgment or notarization to be recorded.

Analysis

House Bill 46 is a lengthy bill containing amendments to Utah’s recording statutes. Prior law stated that for a document to be recorded in the office of a county recorder, the signatures must have been notarized with a legible imprint of the Notary’s seal. HB 46 clarifies that while this general rule still applies, other applicable statute may provide that no seal is required in order for the document to be recorded. Two examples immediately come to mind. One statute contains a provision permitting a mylar or plastic subdivision plat map to be notarized without a Notary seal if certain information is included on the plat map instead (UCA 46-1-16[6]). Perhaps even more relevant, UCA 46-1-16[7] states that a Notary’s acknowledgment certificate on an electronic message or document is complete without the imprint of a seal if the Notary’s commission information appears electronically within the message or document. Since electronic recording of real property instruments is happening in several Utah counties, the existing statutory language presented a legal barrier to the adoption of electronic notarization and recording.

HB 46 also contains a couple of other minor provisions touching on notarization, namely, that a boundary line agreement functioning as a quitclaim deed must contain a proper acknowledgment of each signature in order to be recorded and that a judgment, abstract of judgment, or separate information statement of the judgment creditor does not require an acknowledgment or notarization in order for the document to be recorded.

Read House Bill 46.