Real Property - Recordation and Land Records - Revisions

EXPLANATION: CAPITALS INDICATE MATTER ADDED TO EXISTING LAW.
[Brackets] indicate matter deleted from existing law.
Underlining indicates amendments to bill.
Strike out indicates matter stricken from the bill by amendment or deleted from the law by
amendment.
*sb0760*

SENATE BILL 760
N1 6lr2520
CF HB 951
By: Senators Watson and West
Introduced and read first time: February 6, 2026
Assigned to: Judicial Proceedings
Committee Report: Favorable
Senate action: Adopted
Read second time: March 2, 2026

CHAPTER ______

AN ACT concerning 1

Real Property – Recordation and Land Records – Revisions 2

FOR the purpose of repealing a requirement that a printed deed or other instrument offered 3
for recordation include certain margins; requiring the clerk of the circuit court of a 4
county to date each change or correction made to information in the general 5
alphabetical index in a certain manner; and generally relating to the recordation of 6
instruments affecting real property and land record. 7

BY repealing and reenacting, with amendments, 8
Article – Real Property 9
Section 3–104(e) and 3–302 10
Annotated Code of Maryland 11
(2023 Replacement Volume and 2025 Supplement) 12

SECTION 1. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF MARYLAND, 13
That the Laws of Maryland read as follows: 14

Article – Real Property 15

3–104. 16

(e) (1) (i) Any printed deed or other instrument offered for recordation 17
shall[: 18

2 SENATE BILL 760

1. Be] BE printed in not less than 8 point type and in black 1
letters and be on white paper of sufficient weight and thickness to be clearly readable. If 2
the deed or other instrument is wholly typewritten or typewritten on a printed form, the 3
typewriting shall be in black letters, in not less than elite type and on white paper of 4
sufficient weight or thickness as to be clearly readable. The foregoing provisions do not 5
apply to manuscript covers or backs customarily used on documents offered for recordation. 6
The recording charge for any instrument not conforming to these requirements shall be 7
three times the normal amount charged. In any clerk’s office where the deeds or other 8
instruments are scanned, no instrument on which a rider has been placed or attached in a 9
manner obscuring, hiding, or covering any other part of the instrument may be offered or 10
received for record. No instrument not otherwise readily subject to scanning may be offered 11
or received for record until three times the normal recording charge is paid to the clerk and 12
unless an affidavit, black type on white paper, is attached and made a part of the document 13
stating the kind of instrument, the date, the parties to the transaction, description of the 14
property, and all other pertinent data[; and 15

2. Include at least a 3–inch margin at the top of the first page 16
and 1–inch margins on the left and right sides of each page of the instrument for official 17
use]. 18

(ii) After any document has been recorded in one county, a certified 19
copy of the recorded document may be recorded in any other county. 20

(2) A certified copy of any document from a state, commonwealth, territory, 21
or possession of the United States, or the District of Columbia that would otherwise be 22
recordable under Maryland law may be recorded in this State, if the document contains: 23

(i) An original certification made by the clerk or other governmental 24
official having responsibility for the certification or authentication of recorded documents 25
in the jurisdiction where the document is recorded; and 26

(ii) An indication of the recording reference and court or other public 27
registry where the original document is recorded. 28

3–302. 29

(a) (1) The clerk of the circuit court of each county shall make and maintain a 30
full and complete general alphabetical index of every deed, and other instrument. 31

(2) The index shall: 32

(i) Be both in the name of each grantor, donor, mortgagor, and 33
assignor, and each grantee, donee, mortgagee, or assignee; and 34

(ii) Include the book and page of the recordation of every instrument 35
designating these names. 36

SENATE BILL 760 3

(3) The clerk shall index every deed or other instrument retaining a 1
vendor’s lien both as a deed and as a vendor’s lien, in the same manner as mortgages are 2
indexed. 3

(b) The clerk shall index every assignme nt of a mortgage, deed of trust, and 4
release or partial release of a mortgage or deed of trust, whether in long or short form. 5

(c) THE CLERK SHALL DATE EACH CHANGE OR CORRE CTION MADE TO 6
INFORMATION IN THE G ENERAL ALPHABETICAL INDEX ON THE HORIZON TAL LINE 7
ON WHICH THE CHANGE OR CORRECTION WAS MADE. 8

(D) (1) If a court decrees a payment of cost or makes some other decree for 9
payment of money by a plaintiff, the clerk immediately shall index the plaintiff’s name. 10

(2) Until the plaintiff’s name is indexed, no lien under the decree arises 11
against the property of the plaintiff and no right of execution accrues on the decree. 12

[(d)] (E) (1) The clerk shall include in the index each property identifier 13
provided on an intake sheet under § 3 –104(g) of this title or, if the space available in the 14
index will not accommodate all of the identifiers, then as many as the space allows, giving 15
priority to identifiers in the order in which they are listed in § 3–104(g)(3)(i) of this title. 16

(2) The clerk shall r ely on the instrument that is accompanied by the 17
intake sheet for indexing of grantor’s and grantee’s names. 18

SECTION 2. AND BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That this Act shall take effect 19
October 1, 2026. 20

Approved:
________________________________________________________________________________
Governor.
________________________________________________________________________________
President of the Senate.
________________________________________________________________________________
Speaker of the House of Delegates.