Georgia Documents Update

Last year, the Georgia legislature passed an update to the state’s recordation requirements statute with House Bill 974.  We previously wrote about House Bill 974 in May 2022 and April 2023.  The bill is effective July 1, 2023, and documents presented for recording in Georgia must comply on that date.

The purpose of the revision to the statute included providing for electronic recordation of documents in Georgia and to revise the procedures for indexing information related to recorded documents by adding requirements for information on the face of those documents.   The bill also added provisions to state that an incorrect tax parcel identification number does not affect validity of the instrument or its recording and that nothing in the requirements affects validity or enforceability.  However, failure to comply with any of the requirements would not allow the document to be accepted for recording.  

The most impactful change to documents provided by DocMagic will be a revision to all Georgia security instruments to include the newly required information on page 1 of each document below the required margin at the top of the page.  DocMagic will be revising all such documents to list the below information on page 1 followed by the existing text of Georgia security instruments.

Required page 1 information includes:

  1. The date of the document;
  2. The names of the signatories of the document;
  3. The grantee’s mailing address;
  4. Map and parcel identification information, if applicable;
  5. The original loan amount or the amount of any outstanding principal and additional advance pursuant to a loan modification;
  6. The initial maturity date or dates for such debts;
  7. The amounts, if any, of the intangible recording tax imposed on such deed to secure debt;
  8. The amounts, if any, of the intangible recording tax imposed for an additional advance pursuant to a security deed modification agreement or other additional advance secured by a security deed; and
  9. If no intangible tax is imposed, a citation to the authority providing for an exemption of such tax.

DocMagic will automatically complete the information on page 1 from information already collected for completion of the security instrument. 

For completion of the amount of intangible tax imposed on the transaction, DocMagic will use the charge for Intangible Tax, if provided.  If that charge is not provided, indicating an exemption, DocMagic will complete the information for the citation of the exemption as follows:

  1. For a Loan Purpose of ‘Modification’, the exemption will cite to Ga. Comp R. & Regs. 560-11-8-.04.
  2. For a Loan Purpose of ‘Refinance/Increase’, the exemption will cite to Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 560-11-8-.05.
  3. Where the client’s Lender Profile indicates an Organization Type of “A Federal Credit Union”, “A Federally Chartered Credit Union”, or “A State Chartered Credit Union”, the exemption will cite to Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 560-11-8-.14(b).
  4. For loans originated using a Georgia Housing Finance Agency plan, the exemption will cite to Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 560-11-8-.14(a).
  5. Additionally, users will have the ability to set a specific exemption citation via account configuration.

These updates will be released to the DocMagic production environment June 29th, 2023.  The updates will affect all Georgia security instruments, including conventional uniform instruments, FHA and VA instruments, DocMagic’s subordinate-lien instruments, loan modification agreements, as well as retired security instruments using the pre-07/2021 GSE revisions which may still be in limited use.  These updates will occur automatically and no further action is required by DocMagic customers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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