2017 Colorado Revised Statutes
Title 38 - Property - Real and Personal
Real Property
Article 35 - Conveyancing and Recording
Part 1 - General Provisions
§ 38-35-122. Inclusion of street address and assessor information with legal description - effect - validity of recording - interests in property - legislative declaration
(1) (a) All documents of title relating to real property, including instruments creating a lien on real property, except mechanics' liens and judgment liens, shall include as an aid to identification, immediately preceding or following the legal description of the property, the street address or comparable identifying numbers, if such address or numbers are displayed on the property or any building thereon.
(b) Preparers of conveyance documents may include as an aid to identification, immediately preceding or following the legal description of the property, the assessor's schedule number or parcel number.
(2) Should any variance or ambiguity result from the inclusion of a street address, identifying number, or assessor's schedule number or parcel number on a document, the legal description of the property shall govern.
(3) The fact that a document of title does not contain an address, identifying number, or assessor's schedule number or parcel number shall not render the document ineffective nor render title unmarketable if the legal description appears therein.
(3.5) Legislative declaration. (a) The general assembly finds, determines, and declares that in In re Rivera, 2012 CO 43 (also referred to as Sender v. Cygan), the Colorado supreme court held that a recorded deed of trust that completely omits a legal description is defectively recorded and cannot provide constructive notice to a subsequent purchaser of another party's security interest in the property.
(b) By enacting House Bill 13-1307, enacted in 2013, it is the intent of the general assembly to clarify, for parties that currently have an interest in real property or that will acquire an interest in real property in the future, that, notwithstanding the holdings and conclusions in In re Rivera, the fact that a recorded document omits a legal description is not, by itself and without regard to the totality of the circumstances, determinative of whether the document:
(I) Is valid against any person obtaining rights in the real property; or
(II) Is valid or invalid.
(4) The fact that a document purporting to affect title to real property, whether recorded before or after August 7, 2013, does not contain or include a legal description of the real property may, in the totality of the circumstances, but does not necessarily:
(a) Render defective, invalid, or void the recording of the document in the office of the county clerk and recorder of the county where the real property is situated; or
(b) Determine whether the document is valid against a person obtaining rights in the real property.
(5) The fact that a document purporting to affect title to real property, whether executed before or after August 7, 2013, does not contain or include a legal description of the real property may, in the totality of the circumstances, but does not necessarily, determine whether the document is valid or invalid.
