South Dakota · SDCL 44-8South Dakota mortgage release after payoff: the mortgagee's discharge, or the title insurer's certificate of release

In South Dakota a recorded mortgage is discharged by recording a certificate signed and acknowledged by the mortgagee or its successor, identifying the mortgage and its recording, describing the property, and stating that it is fully released or that the debt is fully or partly paid, satisfied or discharged; the register of deeds records it and notes it in the margin of the mortgage record (SDCL 44-8-14). For a collateral real estate mortgage securing a line of credit, once nothing is owed the mortgagor may demand satisfaction in writing, and the mortgagee must execute and record a satisfaction within ten days (SDCL 44-8-26). If no satisfaction or release is recorded after the loan was paid in full under the mortgagee's or servicer's payoff statement, an officer or appointed agent of a title insurance company may, on behalf of the owner, record a certificate of release in each county where the mortgage is recorded (SDCL 44-8-30). The certificate operates as a release and the register of deeds relies on it (SDCL 44-8-33); this procedure applies only to mortgages with an original principal of $500,000 or less (SDCL 44-8-35).