Recording

Section: Recording and Public Records Estimated study time: 45 minutes Content: Recording is the act of filing a real property document with the county Registry of Deeds (or, for registered land, the Land Court), making the document a permanent part of the public record. Recording is not required for a deed to be effective between the parties — delivery and acceptance create the conveyance — but recording is essential to protect the buyer's interest against subsequent purchasers and creditors. The recording system in Massachusetts operates under the "race-notice" statute: to take priority over a prior unrecorded instrument, a subsequent purchaser must (1) record first and (2) take without actual or constructive notice of the prior interest. A buyer who records their deed before a prior buyer records takes priority if the subsequent buyer had no actual knowledge of the prior unrecorded deed (and paid value). Constructive notice is the legal presumption that all parties know the contents of properly recorded documents. Once a deed, mortgage, easement, or lien is recorded at the Registry of Deeds, the law treats all subsequent buyers and lenders as having knowledge of it — they are "on constructive notice" regardless of whether they actually reviewed the record. Actual notice is direct knowledge — being told about an interest or seeing it personally. The recording system creates a searchable chain of title that allows title attorneys, lenders, and buyers to investigate ownership history. The Registry indexes documents by grantor name, grantee name, and chronological order; the grantor-grantee index is the primary search tool. The Massachusetts Registry of Deeds operates in each county (21 registries), and records are available online at masslandrecords.com. Documents that should be…