Video

Hi folks, it’s Andy Stautz with Stautz Law. I am back today for another talk about Indiana probate and estate planning. Today’s topic is a little more real estate related too, but it comes up in probate all the time.  

And that is: do you need the deed?  

Scenario: People Think They Need the Deed

So where does this talk come from? Well, A lot of times I’ll have a client or potential client explaining some real estate situation. Maybe it’s an inherited property, something that they’re going to sell. And they’ll tell me, Andy, I’m pretty sure it belongs to so-and-so, but I can’t find the deed. Or, oh, I’m sure it’s my house, but I don’t know where I put the deed.  

And they get worked up about this. Okay?  

And so I want to discuss, do you actually need a paper copy of the deed for most Indiana real estate, I don’t know, transactions? And the answer is not really, no, especially not if it’s been recorded.  

Most Deeds are in the Indiana Property Records

So in Indiana, we’ve got this system of property records. They’re managed by the recorder’s office, and it’s county by county. Okay, so every county has its own recorder’s office, and that’s usually closely related to the auditor’s office and the assessor’s office. And all of those 3 government agencies work together to keep track of who owns what.  

That’s important for citizens, obviously, so that they can you know, live their lives, do stuff, buy and sell houses. It’s important for the government so they know who owes what property taxes.  

But anyway, each county recorder these days has electronic records. So for modern land records, and by modern I mean probably anything back to 1900, I don’t know. Most of these have been digitized. They’re electronically available.  

How to Find a Recorded Deed

So if a potential client tells me, oh, I’m going to have to dig through a bunch of boxes to find the deed, a lot of times the answer is, hey, don’t bother. I can look it up. I can search the property records and find it and get a PDF copy or, you know, see a version of it. And sometimes that’s specialized search software, sometimes it’s freely available.  

It depends, again, on how the county recorder works and what provider they use to keep track of the records. So from my perspective, as an attorney, do you need the deed? The answer is usually not. And if you’re just a citizen, just an ordinary person watching this and wondering, It’s like, if you lose your paper deed, you can usually go down to the recorder’s office, go down to the county courthouse and ask for a copy. So in Marion County here, they’ve got computer terminals. You just walk in and you’ve got free use of their property record search. And you know, you pay a little copy fee if you want to print something off.  

And a lot of counties have that.  

What if a Deed is not Recorded?

Okay, that entire talk though, was premised on the idea that the deed in question had been recorded. Not all deeds get recorded, and some deeds can take effect even if they’re not recorded. 

Not all deeds get recorded, and some deeds can take effect even if they’re not recorded.  
And then you’re in the Wild West.

And then you’re in the Wild West, okay? And that’s a whole other talk, because Indiana’s system of determining property rights is kind of based on the idea that things should be recorded. And I don’t want to go into the technicalities because we’re already nearing 5 minutes, but you might need a deed if it’s the only evidence of a conveyance, right? If it never got recorded, it’s not in those nice electronic records, okay?  

But to answer the general question, do you need the deed, you know, As long as it’s been recorded, it’s in the property records and anyone who’s interested can go find it. It’s public, it’s online, you know, so you don’t need to go digging through shoeboxes. But the big asterisk, of course, is those weird scenarios where it’s not been recorded. Okay, so I hope that helps.