Oklahoma · 16 O.S. §§71–80Oklahoma Marketable Record Title Act: the 30-year root of title and what survives it

Under Oklahoma's Marketable Record Title Act, a person with an unbroken chain of title of record to an interest in land for 30 years or more has a marketable record title (16 O.S. §71). The root of title is the most recent conveyance or other title transaction recorded as of 30 years before marketability is determined (§78(e)). Interests, claims or charges that depend on anything before the root of title are null and void (§73), but the title stays subject to defects inherent in the chain itself, interests preserved by a recorded notice of claim or by the same owner's 30 years' continuous possession, adverse possession after the root, and later-recorded title transactions (§72). A claimant preserves an older interest by recording a verified notice of claim during the 30 years after the root of title, and no disability or lack of knowledge stops that period (§74(a)). The Act doesn't bar reversioners under leases, severed mineral or royalty interests, easements, subdivision use restrictions or interests of the United States (§76(A)). A stray instrument from someone outside the chain of title doesn't create a root of title, except for an owner of a severed mineral interest (§76(C)). Filing a notice to slander title exposes the filer to costs, attorney fees and treble damages in a quiet title action (§79).