Real Property - Recordation and Land Records - Revisions, the official text

WES MOORE, Governor                              Ch. 746

Chapter 746

                       (House Bill 951)

AN ACT concerning

              Real Property – Recordation and Land Records – Revisions

FOR the purpose of repealing a requirement that a printed deed or other instrument offered
         for recordation include certain margins; requiring the clerk of the circuit court of a
         county to date each change or correction made to information in the general
         alphabetical index in a certain manner; and generally relating to the recordation of
         instruments affecting real property and land record.

BY repealing and reenacting, with amendments,
         Article – Real Property
         Section 3–104(e) and 3–302
         Annotated Code of Maryland
         (2023 Replacement Volume and 2025 Supplement)

         SECTION 1. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF MARYLAND,
That the Laws of Maryland read as follows:

                       Article – Real Property

3–104.

         (e)  (1) (i)  Any printed deed or other instrument offered for recordation
shall[:

                                 1. Be] BE printed in not less than 8 point type and in black
letters and be on white paper of sufficient weight and thickness to be clearly readable. If
the deed or other instrument is wholly typewritten or typewritten on a printed form, the
typewriting shall be in black letters, in not less than elite type and on white paper of
sufficient weight or thickness as to be clearly readable. The foregoing provisions do not
apply to manuscript covers or backs customarily used on documents offered for recordation.
The recording charge for any instrument not conforming to these requirements shall be
three times the normal amount charged. In any clerk’s office where the deeds or other
instruments are scanned, no instrument on which a rider has been placed or attached in a
manner obscuring, hiding, or covering any other part of the instrument may be offered or
received for record. No instrument not otherwise readily subject to scanning may be offered
or received for record until three times the normal recording charge is paid to the clerk and
unless an affidavit, black type on white paper, is attached and made a part of the document
stating the kind of instrument, the date, the parties to the transaction, description of the
property, and all other pertinent data[; and

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Ch. 746  2026 LAWS OF MARYLAND

                                    2. Include at least a 3–inch margin at the top of the first page
and 1–inch margins on the left and right sides of each page of the instrument for official
use].

                           (ii) After any document has been recorded in one county, a certified
copy of the recorded document may be recorded in any other county.

                  (2) A certified copy of any document from a state, commonwealth, territory,
or possession of the United States, or the District of Columbia that would otherwise be
recordable under Maryland law may be recorded in this State, if the document contains:

                           (i) An original certification made by the clerk or other governmental
official having responsibility for the certification or authentication of recorded documents
in the jurisdiction where the document is recorded; and

                           (ii) An indication of the recording reference and court or other public
registry where the original document is recorded.

3–302.

         (a) (1) The clerk of the circuit court of each county shall make and maintain a
full and complete general alphabetical index of every deed, and other instrument.

                  (2) The index shall:

                           (i) Be both in the name of each grantor, donor, mortgagor, and
assignor, and each grantee, donee, mortgagee, or assignee; and

                           (ii) Include the book and page of the recordation of every instrument
designating these names.

                  (3) The clerk shall index every deed or other instrument retaining a
vendor’s lien both as a deed and as a vendor’s lien, in the same manner as mortgages are
indexed.

         (b) The clerk shall index every assignment of a mortgage, deed of trust, and
release or partial release of a mortgage or deed of trust, whether in long or short form.

        (c) THE CLERK SHALL DATE EACH CHANGE OR CORRECTION MADE TO

INFORMATION IN THE GENERAL ALPHABETICAL INDEX ON THE HORIZONTAL LINE

ON WHICH THE CHANGE OR CORRECTION WAS MADE.

        (D) (1) If a court decrees a payment of cost or makes some other decree for
payment of money by a plaintiff, the clerk immediately shall index the plaintiff’s name.

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WES MOORE, Governor  Ch. 746

                  (2) Until the plaintiff’s name is indexed, no lien under the decree arises
against the property of the plaintiff and no right of execution accrues on the decree.

        [(d)] (E) (1) The clerk shall include in the index each property identifier
provided on an intake sheet under § 3–104(g) of this title or, if the space available in the
index will not accommodate all of the identifiers, then as many as the space allows, giving
priority to identifiers in the order in which they are listed in § 3–104(g)(3)(i) of this title.

                  (2) The clerk shall rely on the instrument that is accompanied by the
intake sheet for indexing of grantor’s and grantee’s names.

         SECTION 2. AND BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That this Act shall take effect
October 1, 2026.

Approved by the Governor, May 26, 2026.

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