New York · RecordingNew York deed recording: the recording statute, the owner notice and the county clerk's fees

A New York conveyance of real property, once acknowledged or proved and certified as the Real Property Law requires, may be recorded in the office of the clerk of the county where the property is located, and the county clerk – or the city registrar where applicable – must record it on request and on payment of the lawful fees. A conveyance that isn't recorded is void against a later purchaser in good faith and for valuable consideration from the same seller whose own conveyance is recorded first. For residential property, the clerk or city registrar mails the owner of record a written notice of the sale or transfer; the party recording the conveyance bears the cost, and failure to mail or receive the notice doesn't affect the conveyance (RPL §291). The county clerk's fee for recording, entering, indexing and endorsing a certificate on an instrument is $5 plus $3 for each page or portion of a page, plus 50 cents for each additional town, city, block or other index; a county may opt by county law to raise this to $20 plus $5 per page, effective thirty days after enactment, and a cover page counts as an additional page. On top of that, each recorded instrument carries a statutory $5 for the state local government records management improvement fund and $15 for the cultural education account (CPLR 8021(a)(4)). Transfer taxes and the mortgage recording tax are separate.