Request By:
Mr. Robert E. Bathalter
Attorney at Law
110 West Second Street
Falmouth, Kentucky 41040
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
Your question relates to fees charged by county clerks for the recording of deeds and plats pursuant to KRS 64.012.
Your facts and question were stated as follows:
"In recording a deed I often include a copy of the plat of the real estate conveyed in the deed. This plat is on the same size of paper as the deed and is recorded as part of the deed in the Deed Book in the County Clerk's Office. The plat is not indexed separately by the Clerk.
"I have taken the position that the charge for this additional page should be no more than $1.50 if it causes the pages in the deed to exceed three pages. The County Clerk believes that there should be an additional charge of up to $10.00 pursuant to that section of KRS 64.012 which states: 'recording plats, maps, and surveys, not exceeding 24 inches by 36 inches, per page . . . . . $10.00.'
"I would appreciate it very much if you could advise me whether or not the Clerk has the right to charge an additional amount for a plat which simply is an additional page of a deed and not recorded in a separate plat book and not separately indexed. "
The fee for recording a deed of real estate is seven dollars ($7.00), provided it does not exceed three pages. Where the deed exceeds three pages, the fee is $1.50 for each additional page. See KRS 64.012.
A deed is a present grant of an interest in real estate. 26 C.J.S., Deeds, § 1, pp. 581-582. The court said in
Terrill v. Kentucky Block Cannel Coal Co., 290 Ky. 35, 160 S.W.2d 326 (1942), that if the effect of an instrument, regardless of what it is called, is to sever the estate and to vest title to a certain part of it in another, it is a deed. A deed to be valid must pass some present interest vesting in the grantee upon delivery thereof.
Spicer v. Spicer, 314 Ky. 560, 236 S.W.2d 474 (1951). Of course, a deed, to be valid, must contain a description of the property to be conveyed. The test as to sufficiency of description in a deed is whether the land can actually be located therefrom.
Casteel v. Pennington, 228 Ky. 206, 14 S.W.2d 753 (1929).
Thus in the situation you present, if the description, from which the land conveyed can be actually located on the ground, is contained within the deed instrument, then the plat of the land must be construed as a superfluity and as being separate from the deed in terms of a recording fee. The fee for recording such plat is ten dollars ($10.00), pursuant to KRS 64.012. This would mean that the plat should be recorded in the plat book and separately indexed.
Where the appended plat is specifically referred to in the deed and must be resorted to in order to locate the land on the ground, it will be considered as an integral part of the deed in question. Thus if the deed, considering the plat, did not exceed three pages, the recording fee is $7.00. Where the deed exceeds three pages, the recording fee is $1.50 for each extra page over three. See