Changes in fee for recording documents

DELTA COUNTY — The price of filing paperwork at your county’s register of deeds office will soon be going up.

Recent State legislation has changed the previous per–page fee for recording documents like tax liens, deeds, and mortgages to a flat rate effective October first. Banks and other lending institutions will likely see a cost savings when filing larger documents, where each page currently costs three dollars after an initial fourteen dollar fee. While those savings could be passed along to customers, officials say the average individual, those who generally submit one–page documents will likely see a sharp increase in cost.

“There’s currently a $14 recording fee for a one page document,” said Delta County Chief Deputy Register Rob Buchler. “The new legislation which takes effect on October 1st raises that fee to $30 for a document, and that’s regardless of the number of pages. That’s an increase of about 214 percent, a bit of a sticker shock there for our customers.”

Delta County is working on updates to its accounting software to be prepared in time for the October launch of the new fees. At least in Delta, the price to obtain a copy of a record from the register of deeds — one dollar per page — will remain unchanged.