The Indiana General Assembly has fixed the Indiana statute on recording documents. Last summer, we reported on an unintended change to the Indiana recording statute that was causing major headaches for individuals trying to record instruments. Senate Enrolled Act No. 340 amended Indiana Code 32-21-2-3 so that as of July 1, 2020, any document to be recorded in Indiana had to have both a notarized signature of the grantor of the document AND a notarized signature of a witness. Prior to the statutory change, an instrument needed to be either acknowledged by the grantor (notarized signature) OR proved before a list of specified persons.
Fortunately, the Indiana General Assembly expeditiously put through a legislation fix for duplicate requirement. Governor Holcomb signed into law HEA 1056 on February 18, 2021. The bill was effective upon signage and immediately become Indiana law. The bill’s language also retroactively applies to all instruments recorded after July 1, 2020. The passage of this bill puts to bed the requirement of requiring instruments to BOTH be notarized AND witnessed in order to be recorded and sets the law back to the previous requirement of the instrument to be either acknowledged by the grantor (notarized signature) OR proved before a list of specified persons.
Contact the Stinson Law Firm at 317-622-8181 or stinsonelderlaw.com to obtain assistance with your estate planning needs.