[WSBARP] Recording Standards Commission

[Chris B]

Gang, this may be a shock, but I haven’t received a single response to this post. There’s gotta be someone who cares about this issue who is willing to attend a few zoom meetings, and receive all the attendant glory for offering their time.

Christopher T Benis
Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 17, 2025, at 2:34 PM, Chris B <chrisb at firstavenuelaw.com> wrote:


Some of you will recall that I have served for the past several years as the WSBA representative to the Recording Standards Commission (RSC).

The RSC was formed by the legislature to be the official body that adopts WACs governing recording of documents at county recorders/auditor’s offices.  The goal is to harmonize recording practices across the state’s many counties.

A new issue that has arisen which relates to multi-transaction or multi-title documents sent in for recording. The issue is a bit convoluted, but is as follows:

Let’s say you were recording a document clearing title of multiple liens or conveying multiple interests to multiple unrelated parties.  An example would be an old railroad easement which is being cleared from the title of dozens or hundreds of parcels.  Some counties treat this as a single recording and some treat it (and index it) as however many parcels are involved. This means that the recording fee for a single document could be thousands of dollars for the first page (we heard a story from Spokane county of a $4,000 recording fee for the first page of such a document.

While quite an arcane issue, it may impact some of you (and your clients) tremendously.  The RSC is looking for one or two attorneys who would be interested in joining the subcommittee which will make recommendations to the RSC on this issue, and ultimately part of the WACs.

This is not a huge commitment.  It might only involve attending 3 or 4 zoom meetings.

If interested, please reply to me with a short statement of why you would have helpful insights to contribute.

Call me for any follow-up questions.

Chris Benis
First Avenue Law Group, PLLC
321 First Avenue West, Seattle, WA  98119
206.447-1900 office – 206.447.9075 fax – www. firstavenuelaw.com

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