A bill for an act relating to county recorder fees and land record information systems management.

2025-2026 Regular Session Introduced by Gary Mohr and 1 co-sponsor

Standardize and integrate electronic land records, redact PII for online display and transfers, and allow counties to charge up to $10 per transaction to fund the updates.

Withdrawn.

#countyrecorders #realproperty #recordsandpublications

Overview

HF 328, introduced February 11, 2025, sought to establish standards and processes for modernizing and managing electronic land-record documents and information in county recorder offices. The bill aimed to integrate data from the recorder’s records with other land-record information sources, create a process for redacting personally identifiable information (PII) in electronic documents displayed publicly or shared with others, and allow counties to adopt a new per-transaction fee to support these efforts. The bill was ultimately withdrawn on April 28, 2025.

Purpose and intent

Establish and implement standards for recording, processing, and archiving electronic documents and records.

Integrate information from documents and records maintained by the recorder with other land-record information sources to create a more comprehensive county land-record information system.

Develop and maintain a redaction process to protect personally identifiable information in electronic documents that are publicly accessible online or transferred to another party.

Key provisions

Electronic records standards and integration

Create standards for recording, processing, and archiving electronic documents and records.

Integrate information from:

Documents and records maintained by the county recorder.
Other land-record information from external sources, into the county land-record information system.

Public access and privacy protections

Implement and maintain a process for redacting personally identifiable information contained in electronic documents that are:

Displayed for public access on an internet site.
Transferred to another person.

Fees

A county’s board of supervisors (or another form of county government) may adopt an additional fee, not to exceed $10 per transaction, to be paid to the recorder when filing or recording an instrument in the recorder’s office, pursuant to Code section 331.604.

Affected entities and impact

County governments: May adopt a new per-transaction fee up to $10 to fund these reforms.

County recorders: Responsible for implementing the new standards, integration, and redaction processes; may receive additional revenue via the per-transaction fee.

Public/recipients of land records: Potentially improved access to integrated land-record information, with enhanced privacy protections through redaction of PII.

Private entities and researchers: Access to standardized electronic records and a more comprehensive land-record information system, subject to redaction rules.

Procedural timeline and status

2025-02-11: Introduced and referred to Ways and Means.

2025-02-20: Subcommittee (Nordman, Jones, Judge) consideration.

2025-03-13 / 2025-03-18: Subcommittee meeting and recommendation for passage.

2025-04-16: Committee vote (Yeas 16, Nays 8, Excused 1) and recommendation for amendment and passage.

2025-04-17: Committee report approving the bill and renumbering it as HF 1031.

2025-04-28: Bill withdrawn.

Sponsors: MOHR (primary) and NORDMAN (primary); Young added as sponsor on 2025-02-13.

Notes

Although the bill advanced through committee with a formal recommendation to pass (and was renumbered HF 1031 in the process), it was ultimately withdrawn from consideration. If reintroduced in the future, it would retain its core goals of modernizing electronic records standards, improving data integration, protecting privacy, and allowing a modest per-transaction recording fee.

Bill