Definitions

DEFINITIONS

Automatic Clearing Houses (ACH) are electronic funds-transfer networks for financial transactions in the United States. Trusted Submitters and others who eRecord Documents have ACH accounts from which they can “push” Recording Fees to a County Recorder and from which a County Recorder can “pull” Recording Fees.

Business Day means every official working day of the week. Typically, Business Days are the days between and including Monday to Friday and do not include public holidays and weekends.

Certificate of Real Estate Value (eCRV) is an electronic document that must be filed with a County Recorder when Minnesota real estate is sold or otherwise conveyed for consideration greater than $1,000. An eCRV must be filed with the Minnesota Department of Revenue whenever a deed on which State Deed Tax must be paid is submitted for recording. See generally http://www.revenue.state.mn.us/CRV/Documents/ecrv_guidelines-11.6.2015.pdf (last visited on April 28, 2016).

Commission means the Electronic Real Estate Recording Commission (ERERC), which the Minnesota Legislature established in 2005 by Minnesota Statutes §§ 507.0941 to 507.0948.

Court Document means a court order or other document that is filed with a clerk of court. Certified copies of Court Documents may be recorded or eRecorded.

Document “means information that is: (1) inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form; and (2) eligible to be recorded in the land records maintained by the recorder or registrar.” Minnesota Statutes § 507.0941(a).

Document Category is one of the eleven categories into which the Commission sorted each Document Type (other than Plats) based on similarities in purpose and workflow associated with that Document Type.

Document Standards are the page-size, paper-type, signature, notary, and other requirements for Documents that are set forth in Minnesota Statutes §§ 507.093 https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/statutes/?id=507.093 and 507.24 https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/statutes/?id=507.24.

Document Type/All Document Types refers to documents that can be recorded in a County Recording Office. The Commission has applied specific eRecording Standards to each Document Type and assigned each Document Type to a Document Category.

Electronic “means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities.” Minnesota Statutes § 507.0941(b). 

Electronic document “means a document that is received by the recorder or registrar in an electronic form.” Minnesota Statutes § 507.0941(c).

Electronic signature “means an electronic sound, symbol, or process attached to or logically associated with a document and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the document.” Minnesota Statutes § 507.0941(e). A document recorded in conformity with the eRecording Standards is deemed to meet the original-signature and other recording requirements of Minnesota Statutes § 507.24. See Minnesota Statutes § 507.24, subd. 2(b).

Electronic recording (eRecording) is the process of receiving, examining, recording, endorsing recording information on, and returning electronic documents that individuals and entities have submitted for recording in a county’s land record system. eRecording also includes calculating and collecting fees from the documents’ submitters.

eRecording System is any methodology through which a Recorder receives a document submitted electronically for recording, examines and validates the document, processes the document through the Recorder’s internal business rules, and then returns the officially recorded document electronically to the submitter with endorsement and receipt information and the Recorder’s digital signature electronically embedded therein.

eRecording Standards are the data- and document-related requirements that the Commission drafts, adopts, and promulgates from time to time to govern the submission, recording, and indexing of documents that are submitted to Recorders electronically for recording. The Commission publishes its eRecording Standards at http://www.mnererc.com/ (last visited April 28, 2016) and http://www.commissions.leg.state.mn.us/erer/erer.htm (last visited April 28, 2016).

eRecording Vendor is a business entity that produces, sells, or produces and sells eRecording Systems and software to Recorders and Registrars.

ERERC See “Commission.”

e-Well Disclosure Certificate is the electronic version of the Minnesota Department of Health’s Well Disclosure Certificate. Before signing an agreement to sell or transfer real property, the property seller must deliver a Well Disclosure Certificate to the buyer. A Well Disclosure Certificate either states that there are no wells on the property or discloses the location and status of all wells on the property, sets forth the property’s legal description, and includes a sketch map showing the location of each well. See http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/wells/disclosures/welldisclosure.html (last visited April 28, 2016).

Index means a list of Documents. Minnesota counties maintain both grantor-grantee and tract indexes. The grantor index lists Documents by the names of persons who have conveyed interests in real property (that is, grantors) and the grantee index lists Documents by the names of persons who have received those interests (that is, grantees). The tract index lists Documents by the legal description of the real property conveyed rather than the names of the parties to the conveyance.

Legislative Coordinating Commission means the commission established by Section 3.303 (MS §507.0941 DEFINITIONS).

Modern Information Systems- For the purposes of MS §357.18 Subd. 4 the commission’s definition of Modern Information Systems is systems that facilitate or maintain eRecording and other future systems that involve the progression of the county recording systems.

Original document is a document in recordable form that meets the document standards set forth in MS §507.093 and MS §507.24 and is entitled to be recorded in the office of the county recorder or county registrar of titles. An original document may include a certified copy of a court document or a certified copy of a document recorded in another recording jurisdiction. When presented for electronic submission the eDocument submitter certifies that the document is an original document.

Paper document means a document that a recorder or registrar receives in a form that is not an electronic document.

Person means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, public corporation, government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity (MS §507.0941 DEFINITIONS).

eDocument Submitter (fka Producer submitter) is a person or entity that produces or receives original documents and engages the services of a trusted submitter to eRecord those documents in the office of the county recorder or county registrar of titles. A eDocument submitter may also act as a trusted submitter provided the eDocument submitter meet the qualifications and requirements to act as a trusted submitter.

EDocument Submitter Agreement is the agreement between a eDocument submitter and a trusted submitter under which a eDocument submitter engages the services of a trusted submitter and pursuant to which a eDocument submitter agrees to comply with the document standards and eRecording standards in order to eRecord original documents in the office of a county recorder or county registrar of titles.

Race-notice statute is a recording act that provides that the person who records first, without notice of prior unrecorded claims, has priority. About one-half of the states, including Minnesota, have race-notice recording acts. 

Record see Recording system.

Recordable document is a document that conforms to Document Standards (see Document Standards)

Recorded see Recording System.

Recording act is a statute that establishes (1) the requirements for recording a deed or other instrument that affects title to real property and (2) the standards for determining priorities between persons claiming interests in the same real property. Recording acts are designed to protect good-faith purchasers from earlier unrecorded interests. There are three main types of recording statutes: race, notice, and race-notice.

Recording fee is the fee charged by the county to record a document in the office of the county recorder or county registrar, whether submitted by mail, in person or electronically. Except as specifically established otherwise by MS §357.18, MS §508.82 and MS §508A.82, the fee for recording or eRecording each document type in every office of a county recorder or county registrar of titles in Minnesota is $46.

Recording surcharge is any fee, in addition to the recording fee, that is charged for recording or eRecording an original document in the office of a county recorder or county registrar of titles. Recording surcharge fees are prohibited under Minnesota law. A recording surcharge does not refer to any transfer or registration taxes required by law or to a fee that a trusted submitter may charge for their services.

Recording system is a registry of official land records plus indexes to those records. In Minnesota, these records and indexes are kept in a public office in the county in which the land referred to in the records is located. Any instrument affecting title to real property may be copied into the land records. That process is referred to as recording and the instrument, once it is in the registry, is said to be recorded.

Recording or recorded date and time is the date and time at which the document has been accepted for recording and indexing in the office of a county recorder or county registrar of titles.

Registrar means the registrar of titles for the county in which a document is received (MS §507.0941 DEFINITIONS).

Reject or rejected document is a document submitted for eRecording in an office of the county recorder or county registrar which does not meet document standards set forth in MS §507.093 and MS §507.24, as further set forth in MS §357.18, and in the case of a document submitted electronically, that document does not meet the eRecording standards established by the ERERC.

Reject procedure is a county workflow process for the timely return of an original document that has not been recorded with an explanation of the reason(s) that the original document has not been recorded. That explanation must be consistent with MS §357.18, MS §507.093 and MS §507.24.

Required supplemental document information is the receipt number of the eCRV and e-Well Certificate filings that must be placed on a deed of conveyance if the conveyance falls under the applicable statutes requiring payment of State Deed Tax or the filing of a Well Certificate.

State Deed Tax

Statement of Commitment is the form required to be completed by a trusted submitter upon meeting the requirements and qualifications to eRecord in Minnesota and submitted to the ERER Commission for approval. The form is located at the following link: [enter link]

Technology Fund is the fund established by MS §357.18, into which the $10 portion of the recording fee collected under MS §357.18, subd. 1, clause 1 is deposited. The fund was designed to aid in the funding of technology advancements for the office of a county recorder and county registrar of titles. More specifically MS §357.18 and MS §357.182 state that the Technology Fund is a supplemental fund in addition to the regular county funding allocated to the office of a county recorder and county registrar of titles under, and is to be used for supporting technology enhancements to the recording process, including the electronic recording process. The legislative authors’ intent was not to define the methods or specific type of recording due to the pace at which technology changes, but to express that the recorder’s office will use the fund to obtain, maintain, and update to the most current technology. As such, the Technology Fund will remain functioning for many years into the future as new types of delivery including eRecording or other advanced technology becomes available for the recording process. In addition, MS §357.182, Subd. 7 addresses the use of the unallocated fee, more commonly referred to as compliance account or compliance funds. The unallocated fees were established for…”supporting enhancements to the recording process, including electronic recording, to fund compliance efforts…and for use in undertaking data integration and aggregation projects.” The legislative authors’ intent was to ensure the recording turn-around times, as mentioned in MN 357.182, were accomplished with improved technology for county offices. The statute specially mentions the inclusion of eRecording for compliance purposes.

Trusted Submitter aka Software Vendor is an entity or individual approved by the ERERC as having met all qualifications and requirements established to submit documents for electronic recording and has submitted to the ERER Commission an executed Statement of Commitment and direct payment plan authorization. Upon approval by the ERER Commission, the trusted submitter may process the eRecording of documents for eDocument submitters.

Trusted Submitter Agreement see Statement of Commitment.

Turn time/Turn-around time is the period of time between the time a recordable document is received by a county recorder or county registrar of titles and the time that document is available to be retrieved by Trusted Submitter..

Validation/Schema validation is the process a potential Trusted Submitter must complete to be allowed to eRecord in Minnesota. The Trusted Submitter must validate their system with any Authorized County to test and implement the electronic recording process based on the most current standards set by the ERERC. An Authorized County is any county that has established a procedure to test a potential Trusted Submitter’s ability to electronically and securely submit documents into a county’s software system and return the documents successfully. After validation is complete, the Trusted Submitter must complete the Statement of Commitment located on the mnererc.com website, and must submit that Statement of Commitment to the ERERC for approval. Upon approval of the statement by the ERERC, the Trusted Submitter may eRecord in any Minnesota county that has accepted them as a Trusted Submitter subject to county communications, rendering

and payment considerations. Verified is the acknowledgment by the county recorder or registrar that the document has been reviewed by the county recorder’s or registrar’s office for accurate data entry and the document is imaged with all submitted pages that are legible for archival quality.

Verify is the act of reviewing the recorded document for accuracy in data entry and legible imaging of all document pages. County recorders and registrars use several names for the same process.

Workflow refers to the county recorder and the county registrar of titles procedures to move the eRecording documents through the same recording system as paper and to electronically return documents within the 5 day turn-around time as prescribed in MS §507.182.

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