Missouri · RecordingMissouri deed recording requirements: format, margins, marital status and fees

Missouri's rules for getting a deed recorded come from a few sections. Execution (RSMo 442.130): a deed must be signed by the party granting it or a lawful agent and be acknowledged or proved and certified, and every written instrument conveying real estate must state whether each natural person signing – grantors, mortgagors and others – is married or unmarried. Where (442.380): instruments conveying or affecting real estate are recorded with the recorder of the county where the property is. Format (59.310; 59.313 is the similar rule for the City of St. Louis): the recorder may refuse a document that doesn't meet the standards – single-sided, unbound individual pages; type at least 8-point in black or dark ink; legible enough to reproduce; white or light paper of at least 20-pound weight; signatures in dark ink with the name typed, printed or stamped underneath; a top margin of at least three inches across the first page reserved for the recorder, and at least three-quarters of an inch on every other side. The first page, below the top margin, must show the document's title and date, all grantors' names and marital status, all grantees' names, any statutory addresses, the legal description and any required book-and-page references – or say on what page that information appears. A document that doesn't meet these standards may still be recorded for an extra $25. Some documents are exempt, including those signed before January 1, 2002, documents executed outside the United States and documents where an original party has died or is incapacitated. Fees: under 59.310 the recorder charges $5 for the first page and $3 for each additional page, and 59.319 adds a $6 user fee and an additional $3 fee for every instrument recorded.