Taxes And Fees – Colorado Recording Fees On The Rise

A wise woman once explained to me the difference between a tax and a fee. “A tax”, she said with a provocative smile, “is a payment of money to the government, and in return, the government provides you with various services.” “Now a fee, well, that is very different. A fee is what you pay to the government when you use the services that your taxes provide.” And so it goes. The most recent “fee” to see an increase is the one charged by your local Colorado clerk and recorder.

We don’t know for sure who dug this one out of the annals of Colorado statutory law, but it started with Eagle county, Colorado and appears to be spreading like the swine flu. Every Colorado county charges a fee to record documents in the county real estate records. This is called the grantor-grantee index. Traditionally, this fee has been $6.00 for the first page and $5.00 for every additional page.

Evidently, there is a Colorado law that allows counties to charge recording fees based upon the number entries made into the grantor-grantee index. For example, Donald (grantor) executes a deed transferring his Eagle County Colorado timeshare to his nephew, Huey (grantee). That would be one entry into the grantor index (Donald) and one entry into the grantee index (Huey). Cost: $6.00, assuming the deed is only one page. Now, if Donald deeded that same Colorado timeshare to all three nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie, the recording cost would be $16.00 — $6.00 for the first grantor and grantee and then $5.00 for each additional grantee, Dewey and Louie.

While the above example is fairly simple, counting up the actual number of entries into the grantor-grantee index can be challenging, as we have found out the hard way. The simple example is a warranty deed with obvious grantors and grantees. More complex examples include a personal representative’s deed from a probate estate, a supplemental affidavit and death certificate for joint tenancy real estate and a deed from trustees of a trust. Just to make it even more interesting, counties like Garfield are only charging for the obvious entries, i.e., the ones you and I can figure out without calling them. Eagle county, on the other hand, is charging for every additional entry into the grantor-grantee index.

Not all counties are increasing their fees. Some counties, evidently, have figured out that it might be more trouble than it is worth. That leaves us with three possible scenarios: (1) a county that charges for every additional entry into the grantor-grantee index, (2) a county that charges for some of the additional entries and (3) a county that just charges by the number of pages to be recorded.

So, what is a person to do? Answer: Call the county clerk and recorder each time you want to record a document and ask about the recording fee. Otherwise, you may get your document sent back, unrecorded, and that is assuming you were wise enough to ask for a copy of the recorded document.