Chapter 3 : Use of the Record

• Library: Standards for Examination of Real Estate Titles in Arkansas (2021 Ed.)

CHAPTER 3: USE OF THE RECORD

Standard 3.1 Treatment of Stray Instruments

If a title search presents the examiner with a stray instrument, the existence of the stray instrument constitutes notice to the examiner to inquire into the ad valorem tax assessment and payment records for the lands under examination.³⁰

Notwithstanding the foregoing, an examiner may disregard a stray instrument in a title examination where all the following are true:

1. The stray instrument has no information within its four corners other than the legal description linking the grantor with record title;³¹ and
2. The stray instrument does not reference an unrecorded instrument;³² and
3. It is not the last instrument by date (a stray instrument as the last instrument by date suggests the death of the record owner); and
4. There is no indication of ownership in or through the grantor or grantee of the stray instrument contained in the record or in the records of the tax assessor in the county judicial district of the property under examination.³³

Standard 3.2 Rights of Bona Fide Purchasers³⁴

1. Arkansas's mortgage recording statute differs from its statute pertaining to the recording of other instruments. Under that statute, a mortgage is without effect upon subsequent bona fide purchasers until it is recorded. Thus, such subsequent bona fide purchasers take the property free of any mortgage agreements.³⁵
2. If a subsequent

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