§6.3 - Duties of the County Auditor as Recorder

• Jurisdiction: Washington

§6.3 DUTIES OF THE COUNTY AUDITOR AS RECORDER

The duties of the county auditor as recorder are specified in Chapter 65.04 RCW. The principal sections delineate which instruments the auditor must record and how the recording is to be done. Under RCW 65.04.030 the auditor must record any ordinary conveyancing or encumbrancing instrument ("deeds, grants and transfers of real property, mortgages...," etc.) and "all such other papers or writing as are required by law to be recorded and such as are required by law to be filed...." The ordinary land transaction instruments specified in this section are required to be acknowledged, and the Supreme Court in Eggert v. Ford, 21 Wn.2d 152, 150 P.2d 719 (1944), held that the auditor had no duty to record an unacknowledged instrument.

Other statutes direct recording of particular instruments and "conveyances." Some of these are identified in §6.5(5). See also the additional discussion in 4 WASHINGTON REAL PROPERTY DESKBOOK Ch. 3 (Bona Fide Purchaser Doctrine) (Wash. St. Bar Assoc. forthcoming 2009).

(1) Transcription

Under RCW 65.04.040 the auditor is authorized to use various forms of recording the documents, including electronic data processing and photographic or other process that produces a durable record and has been approved by the state archivist. Transcription is still presumably permissible and older transcribed records may be recorded...