Beginning January 01, 2018, a new $75 fee will be attached to certain real estate documents (and others) that are recorded at the county recorder’s office. This new fee is due to Senate Bill 2, which was signed into law this week. The funds are to be used to address California’s affordable housing crisis.
HOW DOES THIS AFFECT ME?
When you plan for your estate, frequently the best planning includes a trust. When you form a trust, one step you must take is to record a new deed for your real property stating that your property is now in the the trust. This deed gets recorded at the county recorder’s office.
There are certain exceptions to this fee: however, for estate planning purposes, this fee will impact how much it costs for record deeds to and from a trust. In Kern County, most deeds cost between $16-19 to record. As of January 01, 2018, this will go up to $91-94 for the same deed, if you do not fall under certain exceptions.
The short of it is this: if you are putting the home you own AND occupy into a trust, you are exempt from this fee. (Whew!) However, if you have other properties, you are not. There is a certain amount of uncertainty amongst lawyers and county officials in multiple counties: I’ve had contact with others in this area and every county seems to be doing it a little differently. I’ll update this as soon as it becomes more definitive. But so far, the practice here in Kern County is that if someone owns a parcel of land apart from their residence, that land has the $75 fee attached.
THE LAW
The text of the law as found in the Government Code is below, or you can click HERE to read the entire bill.
27388.1.
(a) (1) Commencing January 1, 2018, and except as provided in paragraph (2), in addition to any other recording fees specified in this code, a fee of seventy-five dollars ($75) shall be paid at the time of recording of every real estate instrument, paper, or notice required or permitted by law to be recorded, except those expressly exempted from payment of recording fees, per each single transaction per parcel of real property. The fee imposed by this section shall not exceed two hundred twenty-five dollars ($225). “Real estate instrument, paper, or notice” means a document relating to real property, including, but not limited to, the following: deed, grant deed, trustee’s deed, deed of trust, reconveyance, quit claim deed, fictitious deed of trust, assignment of deed of trust, request for notice of default, abstract of judgment, subordination agreement, declaration of homestead, abandonment of homestead, notice of default, release or discharge, easement, notice of trustee sale, notice of completion, UCC financing statement, mechanic’s lien, maps, and covenants, conditions, and restrictions.