2023 CODE OF GEORGIA › Title 44 - PROPERTY (§§ 44-1-1 — 44-17-7) › Chapter 2 - RECORDATION AND REGISTRATION OF DEEDS AND OTHER INSTRUMENTS (§§ 44-2-1 — 44-2-253) › Article 2 - LAND REGISTRATION (§§ 44-2-40 — 44-2-253) › Part 4 - REGISTERS AND REGISTRATION (§§ 44-2-120 — 44-2-144) › Section 44-2-125 - When recordation other than registration not required; filing instruments; admissibility of certified copies and use as evidence; recordation procedure when instrument is not in short form

(a)
Wherever a transfer, transfer as security for debt, or mortgage relating to an estate in registered land is executed in the form prescribed in this article and duly registered and noted in the register of titles and consists of nothing more than the filling in of the blanks on the prescribed form so that the entry of registration on the title register construed in connection with the prescribed form shows the full transaction, it shall not be necessary to record the transfer, security transfer, or mortgage other than by the registration in the title register. Such registration shall for all purposes take the place of recordation as to such instruments so executed. A certified copy of such registration shall be admissible in evidence on like terms and with like effect as a certified copy of a deed, mortgage, or other similar instrument. In such cases, the original instrument of transfer, together with the canceled owner's certificate, or the original instrument of transfer as security for debt, or the original mortgage, as the case may be, shall be numbered with the registration number of the title to which it relates and carefully filed away in such manner as to be of easy access and shall be preserved as a part of the records of the office of the clerk of the superior court. In case of a mortgage executed as indicated above, the clerk shall on request make a certified copy and deliver it to the mortgagee; and such certified copy shall stand for all purposes in lieu of the original and shall be original evidence to the same extent as is an original mortgage in any court.
(b)
If the instrument of transfer is in the short form as indicated above, or if it contains any provisions not provided for in such form, or if it was executed for the purpose of transferring any estate or interest in the registered land in trust, upon any condition or upon any peculiar or unusual limitation, the details at variance with or additional to those provided for under the prescribed form need not be entered in full on the title register and the owner's certificate; but the clerk shall record such instrument in full on the deed book of the county in like manner as deeds to unregistered land are recorded and shall, after the general entry of the transfer on the title register and on the owner's certificate, add thereto a notation that the same is "in trust," "upon condition," or "on special terms," as the case may be, followed by the words "See deed book (or mortgage book, as the case may be) __________________ page __________________." Like procedure shall be followed in case of a transfer to secure debt or a mortgage not following the prescribed form, but in such cases the clerk shall not retain the original instrument but shall return the same to the creditor after it has been registered and recorded.