Quote:
Originally posted by Lawdog
If I had to compile a list of the stupidest things a person could do, buying a piece of land and intentionally not recording the deed would definitely be on there.
It's true that you don't "have to" record your deed, insofar as there is no criminal penalty for not recording. But it could cost you the property. And publishing some sort of "notice" in the local paper is not the legally effective notice that would keep someone else from claiming the property. Legally effective notice is...recording your deed. Gee, what a concept.
There are three types of laws regarding recordation of title to real property: race, notice, and race-notice. Here's a good overview (for some reason no indication is given as to which system Virginia uses, but it's probably either notice or race-notice, as those are the overwhelming majority):
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The main reason for statutes requiring recordation is to protect the lenders from fraudulent acts of unscrupulous sellers. Lenders require recordation lest their "loans" go unsecuritized.
After all, if an unrecorded property is subsequently sold, title still exists with the deed in the owner's possession, with its concurrent right of disposition. Recordation is only evidence of title.
Times were when sellers of property would sell the same real estate many times over and the banks would get it up the wazoo. Write a statute and you mitigate the problem without having to deal with the fraud that caused the problem in the first place.
gldskr