MN County Land Transfer Functions and Duties
Brown County has a current population of 26,911, and consists of 7 municipalities
and 16 Townships. (took that right off the website) I have 5 full time
(counting myself) and 1 3/4 time position. We do Vital's, passports, UCC,
Torrens and run a Abstracting business.
We take in all the documents, check for current taxes, put the parcel ID # on the
doc., verify that deed tax and MRT have been calculated correctly, and that the
CRV has basic requirements met....ie SS#s, signature, phone #, consideration. We
will then put on the filing info and doc. #, and take over for transfer. MRT &
Deed Tax is still receipted by the Aud/Treas office. But most of the leg work is
done. I foresee when we get up and running on TriMin's LandLink, we will also
receipt those monies. I don't think they would cross deputize us to do the
actual transfer, but it is a possibility. Hopefully that will happen later this
year. (But then I thought it would happen last summer)
Dakota County
We formally merged the Auditor/Treasurer/Recorder functions and put the Land Transfer and Recording
operation into one. The staff that do this function review:
1. Is the document recordable?
2. Is the parcel (in the event of a transfer document) in the name of the grantor?
3. Are there (in the event of a transfer document) delinquent taxes on the property?
4. Are the proper fees (MRT/SDT/Conservation fee/Recording Fee/Attested Copy Fee/Assessment
Payoffs – whatever) submitted?
5. Several additional steps are necessary in Torrens, but that translates one for one if you do
Torrens anyway.
If all of the above are true – the deputy does the transfer as the Auditor would do, collects the MRT/SDT
and other fees and enters them into the receipting system (our sticker that comes out with the
document number displays all appropriate fees including MRT/SDT etc.).
If there are delinquent taxes, it is referred back to the customer (or any other rejection reason)….if the
customer included delinquent taxes, that is turned over to the Taxpayer Services section of my
department, then sent back to document processing after the delinquent tax is receipted.
As far as number of people – Dakota County has a population of around 400,000
Here is how the staffing is in my document processing section:
Abstract Division – 1 manager, 1 lead worker and 5 clerks
Torrens Division – 1 manager, 1 lead worker 6 clerks
Archives Division – 1 manager, 4 clerks (the archives section does the scanning, indexing, document
return and all public inquiries).
(Nicollet County) currently do(es) not have those duties, but I would highly recommend taking them.
The more duties you have the less chance of the Recorder's office fading into
another office. In the future I plan to absorbe SOME of them. A/T willling.
Otter Tail County still has all three offices. The Treasurer's Office still
collects the MRT and Deed Tax, the Auditor's have 4 deputies that take care of
the transfers. I don't see any change in the near future. I don't have staff to
do the transfers, but I wouldn't object to collecting MRT and Deed Tax. Who
knows what the future will bring.
Kanabec County has a population of a little over 16,000 and the office has a staff of 2. We do not do the
transfer duties. We do birth, marriage, deaths and notary public. Any other info let me know. Rhonda
Clay County: Go for it. This is what we need to stream line the recording process. Take it or eventually
your job will probably be taken. When opportunity knocks jump on. I would hope they would give you
some staff to help but I’d take it and figure that out later. Ask for part time as needed and you end up
needing them more than expected. Roster help is less expensive but you have someone that is
somewhat trained. In a small county I would think people would jump at any chance to get their foot in
the door. Last time I hired for a full time position I filled it with two permanent part time. Share a job.
Darlene in Becker did it first. She does transfers by the way with a shared Auditor Deputy. I figure if I
get staff cuts maybe I’ll only lose a ½ time person instead of a full position.
I wish I could make the jump. I’ll be lucky if I get close by the time I retire. It is the only way to make the
recording process efficient for the tax payers. Another dept doesn’t see the urgency in processing the
docs timely or if they chose they can delay because they have the power. All silly business but it works
against efficiency instead of for it which benefits the tax payers. You are one of those tax payers in your
county.
Steele County handles only the recording of real estate documents after they have cleared the functions
of the Treasurer & Auditor. In addition, we do marriages, birth, death, UCC, passports, notaries,
ordination papers & coroner’s reports. Steele County has a population of 35,000 and 19,500 land
parcels.
Washington Co: Exciting times Josh! You will have fun with this. Our office does combined processing.
We are responsible for all recording functions, checking delinquent taxes, collecting mrt/sdt, completing
the tax system name changes, and creating new parcels in the tax system for plats and splits. We also
do UCCs (a few). Vitals is done in our license centers and by our taxpayer services group. I have 19.10
FTE in my group and our county population is approximately 230,000.
Jennifer
Todd County Recorder’s Office
Recorder (FT)
1 Chief Deputy (FT)
2 Deputies (FT)
Duties:
Driver’s License
Vital Statistics (Birth/Death/Marriage/Ordinations/Passports)
UCC’s
Passports (applications & take photos)
Torrens Division (not a lot of torrens/ 850 files)
Abstract Division
Oct 1 2008 we started on a trial basis of doing Land Transfers within this office. The Land Transfer
person from the A/T office was moved into the Recorder’s Office. Jan 1 2009 it became official by board
resolution. In addition to the recorder duties we collect & receipt SDT & MRT, check for delinq. taxes and
current taxes on splits (if tax payment is received we give tax payment to the A/T office and they receipt),
we change taxpayer name & address, process splits. If changes in taxpayer addresses are received by
any office they forward them onto this office for changing.
We have adopted the philosophy in Todd County that the A/T office is a financial office and the
Recorder’s Office is the real estate office. Each of us needs to specialist in our area and that in its self is
demanding. It has been working great. It took us three different times in talking about it before it became
reality. It is vital that the A/T and Recorder work cooperatively to make this work. It’s been challenging
trying to mesh these duties together with what we are already doing but very worthwhile. Everyone needs
to have an open mind and be willing to try things and realize that if it doesn’t work out for both side, we
need to rethink processes and try again.
I truly think this is the wave of the future. I’m not sure who was the first county to try this but believe I was
like the 5th or 6th with many more to come.
Best of Luck on this. Thing to remember – be open minded and willing to work as a team for the better of
the county.
I have been doing the splits for Fillmore since I became recorder.
The auditor is still responsible for the transfer, I just create the new legal descriptions and parcel #s.
It works well here as the GIS is part of the recorder office, so we can do the change to parcel layer as we
do the split.
I have 4 people on staff. We record about 6000 documents per year and we also offer a full abstract
service. Fillmore has about 20,000 pop. And about 19500 parcels. I have 4 on staff plus myself.
Le Sueur County has population of about 25,000. The Recorders office has a staff of three (3) full
time deputies and the Recorder. When I took office in 1987 we had four deputies and did real estate
documents in both abstract and torrens and UCC. At that time we averaged about 15 real estate
documents per day. Today we still do abstract and torrens documents, UCC plus UCC for two
neighboring counties FSA offices, vitals (birth, death, marriage) passports, notaries, and we began
abstracting for the county in 1994. August 1st we will begin collecting deed tax and MRT.
We are going to check for splits and delinquent taxes but we will not be doing the actual transfers. We
have a GIS department now and he will be doing part of the splits as he updates the GIS systems parcel
base map and auditors office and assessors office will do the tax program will get updated. At this point
we will collecting the money and the new program from Trimin will breakdown the fees for the auditor and
treasurer.
I actually offered to collect the MRT & Deed Tax with the new release of LandLink. It will be a little extra
work for us but now we will not be running checks and cash back and forth on every document going
to the Auditor and Treasurer's offices and mortgages shouldn't need to leave our office now. Dave
In McLeod County Recorder’s Office we do the following:
Record documents
eRecord
Notary Publics
Ordinations, etc.
Check delinquents on documents for recording (Received this duty in 2005 from the Auditor’s Office)
Treasurer’s office still does Mortgage Reg/Deed Tax
We used to abstract but we no longer do that since about 2004.
We do not do UCC Satellite service
We gave up Birth, Death, Marriage, Passports in 2005 for delinquent tax checks on documents.
McLeod Population: Approx. 36,000
Recorder staff including myself: 5 full time
Here in Pipestone County we do not handle the land transfer duties. We are also a small rural county
with population around 10,000. Our office consists of two full time staff and besides the recording of real
documents we also have the following responsibilities: UCCs, Vital Statistics and Passports. We are also
currently working on getting our marriage records entered into MOMS and in the future will also be
required to data enter our DD214s as well as the minister credentials we have filed.
Beginning with 2010 we will have a 10 day turnaround time for processing real estate records so that may
also play into how documents are handled in each individual county. You can look at this issue both ways
as it may mean job security for some individuals or a timely recording process for other counties. Here in
Pipestone County our documents are returned from the Auditor and Treasurer Offices the same day they
are brought down there. If a document is presented for filing very late in the day we still get it back first
thing the next morning.
Here are some of the statistics for last year:
Recorder/Registrar of Titles
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2,179 legal documents recorded
1,237 Birth and Death Certificates issued
315 Passport applications processed
157 UCC documents recorded
69 UCC Searches processed
74 Marriage Licenses issued
38 Well Certificates collected
14 Notary Public Commissions filed
BECKER COUNTY: Population – 33,000 Tax Parcels – 27,363
TRANSFER OF SOME DUTIES – AUDITOR/TREASURER TO RECORDER
Employees - 7 total - 4 full time (1 being the A/T/R person), and 3 part time
Our office also is cross-trained with the Veterans, Emergency and Human Service
Office to help cover vacation, etc., times. Anything to hang onto all of them in
this time of unknown cuts.
March 30, 2001
Auditor deputizes 3 Deputy Recorders to sign documents for transfer
purposes – Treasurer continues collecting money
June 19, 2002
Auditor, Treasurer and Recorder to share employee and wages to
implement “one stop shopping” with “less duplications of duties” by
doing the following:
-sign for Auditor/transfers
-20%
-collect deed tax
-collect mortgage registration
-40%
-collect current and delinquent real estate taxes
-collect recording fee, etc
-40%
Becker County has one cash register system with many departments
having cash drawers that are reconciled daily.
We have no transfer of funds since they are all in one system.
June 25, 2002
County Board agrees to temporarily assign the Aud/Treas deputy to
Recorders office to implement faster service
March 28, 2003
Memorandum accepted to allow the ‘Property Specialist’ to become a
full time Recorders employee except for tax time when they will enter
tax payments in the Treasurers Office
beginning 2004. Recorder assumes full wage responsibility.
Because this person is deputized in all offices however, they will
occasionally help each office when time permits
Koochiching County Recorder’s Office does births, deaths, passports, notaries,
marriages, marriage credentials, and military discharges.
We do not have the census reports yet of course, but according to
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/27/27071.html , we have about 13,251 people.
The Recorder’s office has 3 full time people including myself.
The Aud/Treas office receipts the MRT and SDT for documents. We would have to hire
more people if we took on more work than we have.
All splits are to run through the zoning office first.
Let me know if there are more questions.
Thank you – Pam
Pine County from a February 2009 email exchange:
Our Treasurer/Auditor will be combined in 2011. With the budget cuts our current
Treasurer office lost one position. She is requesting additional staff for her
office from Auditor and Recorder. Like you said times are changing so what a
better time to approach the issue of allowing us to collect the state deed tax.
So I am on a mission of locating who is currently doing it and how they are setup
for their structure. At this point it is very interesting. Morrison Co just
became the Treas/Recorder and they system is working great for her. Todd Co has
also moved this to the Recorder. Dodge Co has been doing this for 6 years. Lyon
Co and Clay Co are collecting it on e-recording documents. Hennepin, Dakota, &
Anoka are all doing it - but they also have a different structure that the A/T/R.
I also heard Jackson Co. might be doing this but no confirmation on it yet.
My staff is larger. I lost one two years ago to a layoff and it was threatened
this year but they cut management instead. I currently have 5 staff members
including myself. I feel this would allow the documents to flow faster through
the system and keep everything in one stop shop. Our commissioners are big on
the one stop shop so what a better time to approach than now with our turn around
time slowly getting to be less.
I will keep you posted on what I find out, I am
putting kinda of a spreadsheet together if it will help.
Beltrami County Recorder: I added the population (43,000) into your spreadsheet and attached. I have 1
full time deputy and another deputy that is in Real Estate & Tax Services whose main function is
recorder but during May & October she exclusively works on taxes so not sure if you can really count her
full time Recorder. We also are responsible for all divisions in the county which means getting all
preliminary & final approvals as well as collecting all fees and recording documents necessary. The fees
are still receipted by A/T. The Auditor/Treasurer and I will be getting together about setting up a policy
for E-recording where we will be collecting & receipting MRT & Deed stamps. The deputy I have that
works in Real Estate & Tax Services is also deputized as an Auditor/Treasurer so I would assume we
should have no issue with receipting MRT & Deed Stamps. We do all real estate (abstract & torrens) as
well as we handle our own financial records for the office. Any other information you need just let me
know. Charlene.
From reading all of them take note of Todd County’s response. This is the way I think things should be
done. A/T office is a financial office and the Recorder’s Office is the real estate office.
That way all of the training is real estate based and not a financial person trying to understand legal
descriptions. Training would be much easier. Take what they give you and like some said deal with the
staffing later. Maybe you can get a part-time out of it and then it will be easier for you to attend meetings.
Olmsted County: Recording & Abstracting (11 staff) including Manager Pam Hameister
Deed and Mortgage Tax
(Phone and Counter)
Recording Services
Maintain Tax Parcels
Abstracting
Property Information
Rice County’s current population is 63,064 with 29,350 tax parcels. We have 7 cities, 14
townships, and we are the State’s 13th most populous county. I-35W bisects Rice County from
north to south and we have 4 State Highways (99, 60, 246 & 21) running through it.
There are 5 full time staff, including myself, in the Recorder’s Office.
Along with recording abstract and torrens documents, our office also does passports, all vitals
and UCC’s. We do not collect any MRT or SDT at this time. ~Marsha DeGroot
Big Stone:
Our office does not do transfers yet; that is done in our treasurer’s office. I don’t foresee
our office taking over the transfer duties, but there is the possibility of cross-training the
Recorder’s office and the Treasurer’s office for those duties. I did add our population to
the Excel spreadsheet and changed our part time person to “1”. Our part time person
works three days a week in our office and two in the treasurer’s office, although that
varies with workload, vacation days, etc. We still have our two full time employees
(including me).
Wright County:
9 fulltime employees, including myself. Pop approx 120,000.
Duties: Abstract, Torrens, UCC's (4 total counties)
We do not perform any Vitals functions, as they are done in the A/T office.
Have Landshark, Lighthouse and have signed up for Landlink. Are exploring the options
of taking on Deed & Mtg tax payments, but no committment from A/T office as of yet.