Legal Research

A new, free statewide or single county docket search of Maryland Register of Wills records is offered at http://jportal.mdcourts.gov/willsandtrusts/index.jsf.  One may search by search by Decedent, Guardian, Interested Party, Minor, or Personal Representative. Records from the Register of Wills of all counties go back to at least 1998.

  

Recording Fee Increase in El Dorado County, CA  Amid Confusion

On April 12, 2010, a $6.00 fee increase went into affect for the recording fee of the 1st page for most documents or titles recorded by the El Dorado County Recorder-Clerk in California. El Dorado County includes Placerville and South Lake Tahoe. For example, the fee for a one-page basic document increased from $9.00 to $15.00. Taking into account the $3.00 Fraud Prevention Fund, the new first page total is now $18.00 if the document is a Deed of Trust, Assignment of Deed of Trust, Reconveyance, Request for Notice, Notice of Default, Rescission of Notice of Default, Substitution of Trustee, or Notice of Trustee Sale.

What is confusing and has led to many recordings being rejected is that this county is "Title Driven." This means that a document with two titles - such as when a Substitution of Trustee and a Reconveyance are placed on the same single page - the fee is per title and not per page. For this example the fee is $36.00 for the first page, not $18.00.

The increase does not affect any of additional page fees nor affect the recording fee for a Uniform Commercial Code document or a Government Release of Lien.

The fee schedule is found at:

 https://www.co.el-dorado.ca.us/countyclerk/fee_schedule.html.