H.B. 211 Real Property Recording Amendments

What this bill does

The bill would allow land patents issued by the state that bear the Great Seal of Utah to be recorded without a notary's signature, even though a 1988 law generally requires notarized land transfers before recording. The bill corrects a conflict between the recording requirement and how state land patents have been handled since then.

Plain-English summary written by AI from the sponsor’s presentation in committee and on the floor. Check the official text below.

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Every vote

• 8 yes, 0 no, 4 absentHouse Political Subdivisions Committee: vote to approve it · Jan 26, 2026Who voted how
• 8 yes, 0 no, 4 absentHouse Political Subdivisions Committee: Consent Calendar Recommendation · Jan 26, 2026Who voted how
• 70 yes, 0 no, 5 absentFinal House vote · Jan 29, 2026Who voted how
• 5 yes, 0 no, 2 absentSenate Government Operations and Political Subdivisions Committee: vote to approve it · Feb 5, 2026Who voted how
• 5 yes, 0 no, 2 absentSenate Government Operations and Political Subdivisions Committee: Consent Calendar Recommendation · Feb 5, 2026Who voted how
• 24 yes, 0 no, 5 absentFinal Senate vote · Feb 11, 2026Who voted how

Hearings and debates

• Jan 26, 2026 House Political Subdivisions Committee▶ Watch
  Transcript (40 turns)

  1. Rep. Tracy Miller (presiding)1:03:56

     Okay, next up we have, uh, house Bill 2 1 1 real property recording amendments Representative Chew.

  2. Rep. Scott H. Chew1:04:18

     Good afternoon. Thank you. Committee Chairman Millard. Chairman Dunnigan, I have to say, you know, I, I usually don't, uh, wind up on in this committee, so I guess it's probably the difference in the bills I usually carry. But, uh, I do remember once being here and Chairman Dunnigan was the one, uh, conducting the meeting and I had some high school kids helping me present. And we were talking about, uh, you know, we're, we're looking at going from, uh, print to digital on, on classified ads is what we were talking about. And, uh, Representative Dunnigan asked the high school kid that was helping me, he said, so, uh, uh, who, who do you, what do you think about that? And, and, uh, and a young man said, well, I, I definitely feel like that older people like print. And so, uh, Representative Dunnigan said, well, young man, how would you define older? And he looked around the committee and I think he was looking for an escape, but he appeared like he was looking at the committee. And he goes, well, I would say 80. And I thought it was a pretty good answer. But anyway, we're here today to to talk about, uh, HB two 11, which, uh, um, my, uh, county recorder, uh, Brenda McDonald that's sitting here with me, brought it to our attention that for the, that, uh, you know, uh, since 1988, any land transfers, uh, we're supposed to for sure have a notary in order to be recorded. But, uh, anything that's had the, the great seal of the State of Utah, uh, it's not been have a notary, how do you get a notary when the governor signed it and the Lieutenant governor approves it. So anyway, I'm gonna let her, uh, kind of explain where we've, uh, um, how we got to this point. If, uh, and she's the one that notifies him, you have to say your name.

  3. Brenda McDonald, Uintah County Recorder1:06:06

     Okay. I'm Brenda McDonald. You wanna a county recorder? Thank you Vice chair for listening to me today. I found in code in the recorders, um, code of recording real property that it requires us to have notaries. And that's since July 1st, 1988. But then we get state cila patents and those are not notarized. So then in code in another area, um, in 67 1 A in the Governor's code, it says that you can affix the Great Seal. Well, the recorders usually refer back to the recorder code, not the governor's code when we're looking for up code. So all we would like to do is insert what is in 67 1 A and move it also into the recorder's code, which is now 17 71 4 0 2 I believe. So we're just wanting to make those two match up so that we're not confused of what we should be doing. So anyway, that's what we're doing and that's, uh, our presentation right now.

  4. Rep. Tracy Miller (presiding)1:07:22

     Okay, thank you. We'll go to the committee for clarifying questions.

  5. Rep. Tracy Miller (presiding)1:07:27

     Representative Dunnigan

  6. Rep. James A. Dunnigan1:07:29

     That thank you for bringing this to us. Uh, would you define what a RET is?

  7. Brenda McDonald, Uintah County Recorder1:07:35

     Yeah, so a RET is more of an oath.

  8. Rep. James A. Dunnigan1:07:41

     Okay, so an oath of faithfulness, right? Yes, Uhhuh. Okay. I had to look it up, so, oh, I'm come across it very often. Yeah, I, I think this makes a lot of sense. So from my viewpoint, thank you for bringing it. Well, Thank before us. Well, thank you. We appreciate it.

  9. Brenda McDonald, Uintah County Recorder1:07:57speaker not certain

     It's going to take away a lot of heartache between SLA and the recorders. We've Let may clarify a git is an oath of truthfulness. Yes. Not faithlessness. That's a different thing. Truthfulness.

  10. Rep. James A. Dunnigan1:08:09speaker not certain

      Exactly. Yes. Yes. It's, yeah.

  11. Brenda McDonald, Uintah County Recorder1:08:12

      So you have your acknowledgement, which is their acknowledge and that this person is who they say they are. And then you have a juror where they are taken on oath of truthfulness of the document.

  12. Rep. Tracy Miller (presiding)1:08:24

      Okay. Thank you Representative Hansen.

  13. Rep. Lisa Hansen1:08:26

      Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I just had a question regarding the, the recorder's code and the Governor's code. Can you help me understand that a little bit better? Please. So changing the code to the recorder's code would make it so that you would

  14. Brenda McDonald, Uintah County Recorder1:08:42

      Well, I think that the code is, has a discrepancy in one area. It says that it's okay to have the Great Seal in another area. It says that it should have an acknowledgement or a T Oh. And so we're just inserting what is already in code from 67 and adding that to the recorder's code so that it's there and, and we can accept those documents, the, the patents without having an acknowledgement.

  15. Rep. Leah Hansen1:09:13

      Thank you. May I ask a follow up question? Yeah,

  16. Rep. Tracy Miller (presiding)1:09:15

      Go ahead. Thank you, chair.

  17. Rep. Leah Hansen1:09:16

      Um, so was it difficult beforehand to be able to do that?

  18. Brenda McDonald, Uintah County Recorder1:09:22

      Yeah, we've had a lot of issues trying to work through it. Um, the state institutional trust lands worked on documentation so that they could get them recorded, but they had to go a roundabout way to try to get those through. So it's been hard, but honestly, this has been in code since 1988 and I just found it this last year That, You know, and it's like, wait a minute.

  19. Rep. Leah Hansen1:09:50

      So what does that do with a patent? Yeah. Yeah. Thank you Madam Chair.

  20. Rep. Tracy Miller (presiding)1:09:56

      Okay, thank you. See no more committee discussion. Let's go to the public for comment.

  21. Rep. Tracy Miller (presiding)1:10:00

      Is there anyone here to speak to this bill? We have one. Please come forward.

  22. Michelle McConkie, Director, School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration1:10:08

      Okay. Thank you. Committee members. My name's Michelle McConkey. I'm the Director of the School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration. We appreciate the sponsor, we appreciate, um, even a county recorder for working to try to get this language in. It just, it, it takes away any ambiguity. As a state agency, when we convey land, we do it through something called a patent, which is essentially a, a deed that a sovereign issues. And the governor signs it, the Lieutenant governor affixes the seal, and this is how we have gone forward for years. But we just wanna take away any ambiguity so that it's clear that, that the county recorders don't have to worry about if they are also complying with what they need to do. So we, we support this.

  23. Rep. Tracy Miller (presiding)1:10:54

      Okay. Thank you. Can you be sure to sign the list? Do we have anyone online? Okay. We will close our public comment and go back to the Committee for Action. Representative Ward, uh,

  24. Rep. Ryan Ward1:11:10

      Thank you Madam Vice Chair. I would like to make a motion that we favorably recommend

  25. Rep. Tracy Miller (presiding)1:11:14

      House Bill two 11 real property recording amendments. Okay. The motion is to favorably recommend House Bill two 11 real property recording amendments. Um, would you like to speak to that motion?

  26. Rep. Raymond P. Ward1:11:26

      Yes, please. This is a good bill.

  27. Rep. Tracy Miller (presiding)1:11:28

      Thank you. And to the sponsor.

  28. Rep. Scott H. Chew1:11:30

      Thank you. Yes, I, I appreciate that. Uh, a you know, this is part of what we're, we're supposed to do up here. If we find some discrepancy in our, in our code, we need to see if we can't straighten it out. And, and I, I felt, uh, double obligated to do this. I've, uh, I've known our recorder quite a while. Her husband is a, a guy I knew when we were kids growing up, and he's a rascal and she handles him pretty well, so I wanted to take care of it for her.

  29. Rep. Tracy Miller (presiding)1:11:56

      Hey, thank you. Back to, uh, Representative Ward.

  30. Rep. Raymond P. Ward1:11:59speaker not certain

      I'll waive. All right, so the motion is

  31. Rep. Tracy Miller (presiding)1:12:02

      to favorably pass out HB two 11 real property recording amendments. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, that motion carries. Uh, would you Like this on consent representative? Pardon me? Would you like it On consent?

  32. Rep. Scott H. Chew1:12:19

      Oh, that would but qualify. I would appreciate that. Yeah.

  33. Rep. Raymond P. Ward1:12:23

      Uh, make a motion to place this on consent.

  34. Rep. Tracy Miller (presiding)1:12:26

      Okay. We have a motion to place HB two 11 real property recording amendments on consent. Would you like to speak to that motion?

  35. Rep. Raymond P. Ward1:12:34

      Uh, yes please. This is a good bill.

  36. Rep. Tracy Miller (presiding)1:12:36

      Thank you. Representative Chew.

  37. Rep. Scott H. Chew1:12:39

      I would have to agree with, uh, Representative Ward. Thank you. It's a good bill.

  38. Rep. Tracy Miller (presiding)1:12:43

      Okay. Any other committee discussion? Right. All in favor of the motion to place HB 2 1 1 real property recording amendments On consent, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, that motion passes unanimously.

  39. Rep. Tracy Miller (presiding)1:12:57

      All right. We are to the end of our agenda. Can I get one more motion, uh, Representative Hansen.

  40. Rep. Lisa Hansen1:13:05

      Sorry. Motion.

• Jan 29, 2026 House floor debate▶ Watch
  Transcript (4 turns)

  1. Reading Clerk41:00

     House Bill two 11, real property recording amendments by Representative Chew. This bill did not receive a committee Oh was heard in political subdivisions with the vote. 8 0 4

  2. Speaker (presiding)41:13

     Representative Chew.

  3. Rep. Scott H. Chew41:15

     Thank you. Thank you Mr. Speaker. Hey, can you guys hear me? Is this on? It's working. Okay. Um, in 1988, the stat a statute was created that said that land transfers needed to be notarized in order to be recorded. My recorder, ENA County's recorder, discovered that land pat last, last year, my recorder from Ena County discovered that land patents issued by state agencies have not been notarized. So since 1988, uh, uh, land transfers and um, uh, land, uh, patents have not been notarized and it's hard to determine how they should be notarized being their, uh, official, uh, signature is the great seal of the state of Utah. So what we did was just say that if it comes with the Great Seal of Utah is simply doesn't need to have a, uh, notary. That's all that the, the bill does.

  4. Speaker (presiding)42:21

     Thank you. Uh, Representative Chew. We're on the consent calendar, so we'll go straight to, uh, voting. Voting will now be open on HP two 11. Seen all present, having voted voting is now closed. HP two 11 passes this body with 70 yes votes, zero no votes will be sent to the Senate for its consideration. Madam Reading Clerk

• Feb 5, 2026 Senate Government Operations and Political Subdivisions Committee▶ Watch
• Feb 11, 2026 Senate floor debate▶ Watch
  Transcript (6 turns)

  1. Sen. Heidi Balderree6:08

     Senator Balderree. Thank you Mr. President. In 1988, statute was created that said land transfers needed to be notarized in order to be recorded. The Uintah County recorder discovered that this wasn't happening across the state with land patents that were issued by state agencies because another part of statute 57 dash four A says that it recorded with the Great Seal of Utah notary, it isn't needed. So this bill simply puts into statute what is proper and has been practiced since 1988. The Association of Utah County Recorders is recommending and supporting this bill. It's merely a cleanup bill that is 38 years overdue. It's bipartisan, has had unanimous support all the way across. Thank you.

  2. President Adams (presiding)6:54

     Thank you. Just need a motion to pass and no debate on consent.

  3. Unknown speaker6:57speaker not certain

     Uh, I call the question

  4. President Adams (presiding)6:59

     Thank you. And the question is, shall house bill two 11 pass, roll call vote.

  5. Senate clerk (roll call)7:02

     Senator Vickers. Baldy Aye. Lewin Aye. Brammer bus Cullimore es Escamilla Fillmore a Grover Aye. Harper Aye. Kins Ipson Johnson k Juab McKay Aye. Mikel Milner Musman Owens Pitcher Aye. Plum Rebe Sandal Stevenson Stratton Bickers Weiler Aye. Wilson Aye. Winterton Aye. President Adams Aye.

  6. President Adams (presiding)8:04

     House Bill two 11 House Bill two 11. Having now received 24 yay votes, zero nay votes. Five being absent passes. This body will be signed by the president. Return to the house for the signature of the speaker.