On June 25, 2018 Gov. Roy Cooper (D) signed into law NC HB 852 (2018) which amends various parts of North Carolina’s statutes concerning real property (see https://www2.ncleg.net/BillLookUp/2017/HB%20852), including an amendment to N.C. Gen. Stat. Ann. § 47-17.1 which will now state the following:
“The register of deeds of any county in North Carolina shall not accept for registration, nor shall any judge order registration pursuant to G.S. 47-14, of any deeds or deeds of trust, executed after January 1, 1980, unless the first page of the deeds or deeds of trust bears an entry showing the name of either the person or law firm who drafted the instrument. This section shall not apply to other instruments presented for registration. For the purposes of this section, the register of deeds shall accept the written representation of the individual presenting the deed or deed of trust for registration, or any individual reasonably related to the transaction, including, but not limited to, any employee of a title insurance company or agency purporting to be involved with the transaction, that the individual or law firm listed on the first page is a validly licensed attorney or validly existing law firm in this State or another jurisdiction within the United States.”
The effective dates for this bill range from immediately to October 1, 2018.
We are currently reviewing this change to determine any impact to our document library and/or systems and evaluating any necessary changes. Any modifications we make will be announced on our website (https://compliance.docutech.com/).