A Florida deed is recorded with the Clerk of the Circuit Court in the county where the property is located. Most clerks accept deeds in person, by mail, or through an approved eRecording service. Each office is listed on the county recording locations page.
Electronic recording, or eRecording, sends the signed deed to the clerk through an approved vendor instead of by mail or in person. Florida law allows electronic documents and electronic signatures to satisfy recording requirements (section 695.27). With eRecording, the signer keeps the paper original and the recorded image comes back electronically, as the Manatee County Clerk notes. QuickDeeds, a deed preparation and recording service from Easler Law, PLLC, records deeds in all Florida counties.
Before recording, the deed must meet Florida's form rules. The grantor signs in front of two witnesses and a notary. The names and post office addresses of the grantor, the witnesses, the person who prepared the deed, and each grantee must be printed on it. The clerk also needs a 3 inch by 3 inch blank space at the top right of the first page.
At recording, the clerk collects a fee of $10.00 for the first page and $8.50 for each additional page, plus documentary stamp tax of 70 cents per $100 of consideration.
Recording is what protects the new owner. Under Florida law, an unrecorded deed is not good against a later buyer or creditor who had no notice of it.
When QuickDeeds prepares a quitclaim deed or lady bird deed, the attorney formats it to meet these rules.