General Recording Requirements

Documents must be signed and notarized

Signatures and Notaries must be original.  Photocopies cannot be recorded unless they are certified copies from another recording office.  Notary seals must be legible and must include the expiration date, if applicable.  If the name or names of any signer or notary public are not plainly typed or printed under the signatures, the Register of Deeds shall charge and collect a fee of $1.00 in addition to all other fees provided in the fee schedule. KSA 28-115

Legal Description of Real Property

Examples include: Lot, Block, and Addition or Subdivision name. Boundaries by a metes and bounds description including the Section, Township and Range.

Documents must be legible

The document shall be of sufficient legibility so as to produce a clear and legible reproduction thereof.  If a document is judged not to be of sufficient legibility so as to produce a clear and legible reproduction, such document shall be accompanied by an exact copy thereof and which shall be of sufficient legibility so as to produce a clear and legible reproduction thereof and which shall be recorded contemporaneously with the document and shall be counted as additional pages.  The Register of Deeds may reject any document which is not of sufficient legibility so as to produce a clear and legible reproduction thereof.

Fees to be paid at the time of recording

Fees are set by state statute. For the complete fee schedule see KSA 28-115.  A shortened version of the fee schedule is available using the fee link on this site.

Kansas Real Estate Sales Validation Questionnaire Required

Deeds and Affidavits of Equitable Interest must be accompanied by a Kansas Real Estate Sales Validation Questionnaire or have the exemption typed on the face of the deed.  The exemptions are found in K.S.A. 79-1437e.   They are as follows:

  1. Recorded prior to the effective date of this act, i.e., July1, 1991;
  2. made solely for the purpose of securing or releasing security for a debt or other obligation;
  3. made for the purpose of confirming, correcting, modifying or supplementing a deed previously recorded, and without additional consideration;
  4. by way of gift, donation or contribution stated in the deed or other instruments;
  5. to cemetery lots;
  6. by leases and transfers of severed mineral interests;
  7. to or from a trust, and without consideration;
  8. resulting from a divorce settlement where one party transfers interest in property to the other;
  9. made solely for the purpose of creating a joint tenancy or tenancy in common;
  10. by way of a sheriff's deed;
  11. by way of a deed which has been in escrow for longer than five years;
  12. by way of a quitclaim deed filed for the purpose of clearing title encumbrances;
  13. when title is transferred to convey right of way or pursuant to eminent domain;
  14. made by a guardian, executor, administrator, conservator or trustee of an estate pursuant to judicial order;
  15. when title is transferred due to repossession; or
  16. made for the purpose of releasing an equitable lien on a previously recorded affidavit of equitable interest, and without additional consideration.

When a real estate sales validation questionnaire is not required due to one or more of the exemptions provided in 1-16 above, the exemption shall be clearly stated on the document being recorded.