Filing Fees for Recording Documents Set to Increase Statewide

Filing fees in Mississippi’s chancery clerk’s offices are going up for the first time in more than 15 years! In 1993, the fee for recording a deed was $6.00. That fee increased on October 1, 2004, from $6.00 to $10.00. The fees will increase again beginning January 1, 2020, as follows:

(1) The clerks of the chancery courts shall charge the following fees:

(a) For the act of certifying copies of filed documents, for each complete document	$1.00
(b) Recording each deed, will, lease, amendment, subordination, lien, release, cancellation, order, decree, oath, etc., per book and page listed where applicable, each deed of trust, or any other document, for the first five (5) pages	$25.00
Each additional page	$1.00

The only problem with the above recording fee structure is its potential impact on closing disclosures.

When it comes to disclosing fees under the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rule, creditors are held to a good faith standard. This good faith standard is measured, in part, by comparing what was disclosed on the loan estimate or revised loan estimate, with what the consumer actually pays at consummation. If the consumer pays more at consummation, that particular fee is not disclosed in good faith unless it falls within specific tolerance limits.

The TRID rule identifies three categories of tolerance thresholds: zero tolerance, 10 percent cumulative tolerance, and no or unlimited tolerance. These thresholds apply to the fees disclosed on page two of the loan estimate under the loan costs and other costs sections.

There are two types of fees that fall into the 10 percent cumulative tolerance category:

1. recording fees, and
2. fees for required third-party services where the consumer is permitted to shop for the provider and the consumer picks a provider from your Written List of Service Providers.

Recording fees are those fees assessed by a government authority to record and index the loan and title documents as required under State law. Recording fees are assessed based on the type of document to be recorded or its physical characteristics, such as the number of pages.

All fees for services within the 10 percent cumulative tolerance category are added together, and as long as the total that is disclosed on the loan estimate does not increase by more than 10 percent from the total disclosed on the closing disclosure, that grouping of fees is considered disclosed in good faith. Although an individual fee in the 10 percent category may increase significantly, the focus isn’t on the individual fee, it’s on the cumulative effect.

Since closing agents do not generally know how many documents a particular lender may require for a given transaction and how many pages each of those documents may contain at the time they provide their fee quotes, the actual recording fees necessary to record all necessary documents may exceed the 10 percent cumulative tolerance and may require a corrected closing disclosure.

To avoid having to file a corrected closing disclosure, some closing agents have begun to ask whether Mississippi’s recording fees could be further amended to minimize the chance that corrected disclosures may be required.

Senate Bill 2827 was sponsored by Senator(s) Burton, Moran, Simmons (13th), Younger, Carter, and Jackson (32nd) and was signed by Governor Bryant on April 18, 2019.

To read learn more, read the bill!