2023 Tennessee Code › Title 66 - PROPERTY (§§ 66-1-101 — 66-38-101) › Chapter 24 - REGISTRATION OF INSTRUMENTS (§§ 66-24-101 — 66-24-206) › Part 1 - GENERAL PROVISIONS (§§ 66-24-101 — 66-24-123) › Section 66-24-101 - Writings eligible for registration - Refusal to register documents not in English - Electronic records

(a)
The following writings may be registered:
(1)
All agreements and bonds for the conveyance of real or personal estate;
(2)
All powers of attorney authorizing the sale, transfer, or conveyance of real or personal estate, or for any other purpose, or appointing an agent to transact any business whatever;
(3)
All revocations of powers of attorney;
(4)
All deeds for absolute conveyance of any lands, tenements or hereditaments, or any estate therein;
(5)
All instruments of writing for the absolute conveyance of personal property;
(6)
Copies of deeds of conveyance, with certificate of probate, of lands being in different counties in this state, certified by the register of the county where same has been first registered;
(7)
Deeds of gifts of any estate, real or personal;
(8)
All mortgages and deeds of trust of either real or personal property;
(9)
The acknowledgment of satisfaction and discharge of mortgage, trust, and other liens, by an entry in the margin of the record thereof;
(10)
All marriage settlements, contracts, or agreements;
(11)
Deeds and mesne conveyances for the settlement of property, real or personal, in consideration of marriage;
(12)
All other deeds of every description;
(13)
Transfers or assignments of plats and certificates of survey or locations of land;
(14)
All instruments in writing transferring or conveying any right of improvement, occupancy or preemption;
(15)
Leases for more than three (3) years from the time of making the same, or a summary or abstract of such leases;
(16)
Wills devising lands in Tennessee, or certified copies thereof, duly admitted to probate in Tennessee or in other states, together with certified copies of related probate orders;
(17)
Memoranda of judgments, attachments, orders, injunctions, and other writs affecting title, use or possession of real estate;
(18)
Certified copies of decrees divesting the title of land out of one (1) person and vesting it in another;
(19)
Memoranda of judgments or decrees, stating the court, date of judgment, names of parties, and amount of judgment, to bind equitable interests in land or personalty;
(20)
Discharges of soldiers, sailors, marines, and naval and army officers of the United States. County registers are required, upon application of lawful holders thereof, to register such discharges without charge to the person named in the discharge, or to the holder of such discharge. Certified copies of such registered discharges issued by the register shall be legal evidence of such discharge;
(21)
Certified copies of the petition in bankruptcy, with schedules omitted, of the decree of adjudication and of the order of court approving the bond of the trustee, in any bankruptcy proceeding in any court of bankruptcy of the United States;
(22)
Receipts evidencing the payment of Tennessee inheritance taxes issued by the commissioner of revenue or the commissioner's authorized representative and nontaxable certificates evidencing that a sworn return for inheritance tax has been filed with the department of revenue by a duly qualified representative of the estate showing that it has been ascertained that the estate was not subject to tax, such nontaxable certificate having been issued by the commissioner or the commissioner's authorized representative;
(23)
All instruments granting, transferring, pledging or assigning an interest in leases or rents arising from real property;
(24)
All trust agreements or a summary or abstract of such agreements;
(25)
All instruments required to be filed pursuant to §
66-19-301
;
(26)
(A)
Any instrument that provides for any party to agree to take any action regarding any interest in real property, or not to take such action regarding any interest in real property, including, but not limited to, any agreement to or negative agreement to mortgage, pledge, assign, hypothecate, alienate, subdivide, encumber, sell, transfer, or otherwise affect the real property or any part thereof;
(B)
All agreements described in subdivision (a)(26)(A) that are of record as of June 14, 1999, shall be deemed validly recorded and do not need to be re-recorded to have the benefit of subdivision (a)(26)(A) and shall further be deemed to have been validly recorded upon their initial registration;
(27)
Affidavits of scrivener's error and other affidavits in furtherance of identification and title to land. The affiant in the case of any affidavit of scrivener's error may attach a document, including a document previously recorded with corrections made by the affiant, with the affidavit; and
(28)
Reports of sale and notices reflecting tax sale results filed pursuant to any lawsuit for the sale of property for delinquent taxes.
(b)
(1)
The county register may refuse to register any writing eligible for registration in accordance with this title, if such writing, in the opinion of the county register, is illegible or cannot be legibly recorded or reproduced unless the person seeking to register the writing attaches to it for recording an affidavit stating that such writing is the best available original and sets forth the following facts regarding the writing:
(A)
The type of document or instrument;
(B)
The grantor or grantors and grantee or grantees;
(C)
The date of execution;
(D)
The name of the person or persons authenticating or acknowledging the signature of the grantor or grantors, and their title, if any;
(E)
A description of the real property, if any, being affected by the writing; and
(F)
All other information or recitals required by law for the registration of the writing that would otherwise be placed on the writing itself.
(2)
If an affidavit in the form and with the information as required by this subsection (b) is attached to the writing, the county register shall register the writing notwithstanding that it is illegible or cannot be legibly recorded or reproduced.
(c)
The county register may refuse to register any writing eligible for registration in accordance with this title if this writing is wholly or substantially written in any language other than English unless the person seeking to register the writing attaches an affidavit in which the affiant gives a complete translation of the writing offered for registration into English. The affidavit shall be recorded with the original writing and the original writing and its attached affidavit shall be treated as one instrument for recording purposes.
(d)
(1)
The county register may register a copy of an electronic document if the writing is otherwise eligible for registration and the electronic document is certified as a true and correct copy of the original as required in subdivision (d)(3).
(2)
For purposes of this section, an electronic document is defined as one of the following:
(A)
A writing created or retained as an electronic record in accordance with the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA), compiled in title 47, chapter 10, or the Uniform Real Property Electronic Recording Act (URPERA), compiled in part 2 of this chapter, as codified in this state or a substantially similar law of another state as defined in the URPERA, and transmitted to the county register electronically, or a paper copy of such an electronic record; or
(B)
A writing that is a digitized image of a paper document (electronic copy) that is transmitted to the county register electronically.
(3)
An electronic document must be certified by either a licensed attorney or the custodian of the original version of the electronic document and the signature of that person must be acknowledged by a notary public. The certification must be transmitted with the electronic document and recorded by the county register as a part of the document being registered. The certification of an electronic document must be in the following form and the text of the certification must be in no less than ten (10) point font:
I, ___________________, do hereby make oath that I am a licensed attorney and/or the custodian of the original version of the electronic document tendered for registration herewith and that this electronic document is a true and exact copy of the original document executed and authenticated according to law on ____________ (date of document).
_______________________
Affiant Signature
_______________________
Date
State of _______________
County of _______________
Sworn to and subscribed before me this ___ day of ____________, 2____.
_____________________
Notary's Signature
MY COMMISSION EXPIRES: _____________
Notary's Seal (if on paper)
(4)
All electronic documents eligible for registration pursuant to this subsection (d) are validly registered when accepted for recording by the county register. Electronic documents registered by county registers prior to July 1, 2021, shall be considered validly registered with or without the certification provided in subdivision (d)(3).
(5)
No county register shall be required to accept a document transmitted electronically.
(e)
Unless an instrument is acknowledged or proved, as provided in chapter 22 of this title, or other applicable law:
(1)
The county register may refuse to register or note the instrument for registration; and
(2)
If the instrument conveys any interest in real property, including any lien on the property, no purchaser shall be required to accept delivery of the instrument. If, however, an instrument not so acknowledged or proved is otherwise validly registered, the instrument shall be deemed to be validly registered for the purposes of §§
66-26-102
and
66-26-103
, and in full compliance with all statutory requirements set forth in §
66-22-101
, and all interested parties shall be on constructive notice of the contents of the instrument.
(f)
Subsection (e) shall apply to all instruments of record on or after June 6, 2005. However, if the relative priorities of conflicting claims to real property were established at a time prior to June 6, 2005, the law applicable to such claims at such time shall determine their priority.
Amended by 2021 Tenn. Acts, ch. 181, Secs.s1, s2 eff. 7/1/2021.
Amended by 2015 Tenn. Acts, ch. 524, s 2, eff. 1/1/2016.
Code 1858, § 2030 (deriv. Acts 1805, ch. 16, § 2; 1805, ch. 72, § 5; 1807, ch. 85, §§ 3, 4; 1831, ch. 90, §§ 1, 8, 11, 13; 1832, ch. 11, § 3; 1833, ch. 92, § 6; 1839-1840, ch. 26, § 1; 1841-1842, ch. 12, § 4; 1843-1844, ch. 187, § 1); Acts 1875, ch. 124, § 1; 1883, ch. 253, § 1; Shan., § 3697; Acts 1919, ch. 128, § 1; 1925, ch. 148, § 1; Shan. Supp., § 3704a8; mod. Code 1932, § 7621; mod. C. Supp. 1950, § 7621; Acts 1981, ch. 405, § 1; T.C.A. (orig. ed.), § 64-2401; Acts 1984, ch. 603, § 1; 1984, ch. 892, § 1; 1989, ch. 213, § 1; 1989, ch. 364, § 5; 1990, ch. 756, § 2; 1995, ch. 162, § 1; 1999, ch. 364, §§ 1, 2; 2001, ch. 48, § 1; 2002, ch. 735, § 13; 2004, ch. 497, § 1; 2004, ch. 576, § 4; 2005, ch. 13, § 1; 2005, ch. 303, § 1; 2007 , ch. 116, § 1; 2007 , ch. 420, § 1.