(a) The following writings may be registered:

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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 66-24-101

  • Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
  • Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
  • Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. Source: U.S. Courts
  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
  • Lands: includes lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights thereto and interests therein, equitable as well as legal. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Lawsuit: A legal action started by a plaintiff against a defendant based on a complaint that the defendant failed to perform a legal duty, resulting in harm to the plaintiff.
  • Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
  • Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
  • Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Personal property: All property that is not real property.
  • Personal property: includes money, goods, chattels, things in action, and evidences of debt. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Probate: Proving a will
  • Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
  • real property: include lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights thereto and interests therein, equitable as well as legal. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Representative: when applied to those who represent a decedent, includes executors and administrators, unless the context implies heirs and distributees. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
  • United States: includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(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.
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