2019 Massachusetts General Laws
Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations
Title I - Title to Real Property
Chapter 185 - The Land Court and Registration of Title to Land
Section 63 - Assistant Recorder's Entry Book; Processing of Instruments; Public Inspection of Records; Duplicates and Copies
Section 63. Each assistant recorder shall keep a legible entry book, in book or electronic form, in which the assistant recorder shall enter all deeds and voluntary instruments, in the order they are received, and copies of writs or other processes filed with the assistant recorder relating to registered land. He shall note in such book the year, month, day, hour and minute of reception of all instruments, in the order in which they are received. They shall be regarded as registered from the time so noted, and the memorandum of each instrument, when made on the certificate of title to which it refers, shall bear the same date.
Every deed or other instrument, voluntary or involuntary, filed with the recorder or assistant recorder, shall be numbered and indexed and endorsed with a reference to the proper certificate of title. All records and papers relative to registered land in the office of the recorder shall be open to the public in the same manner as probate records, subject to such reasonable regulations as the recorder, under the direction of the court, may make. All records and papers relative to registered land in the office of an assistant recorder shall be open to the public by having copies or electronic images of such records and papers available for public inspection.
Duplicates of all deeds and voluntary instruments filed and registered may be presented with the originals, shall be attested and sealed by the recorder or an assistant recorder, endorsed with the file number and other memoranda on the originals and may be taken away by the person presenting them.
Certified copies of all instruments filed and registered may also be obtained at any time upon payment of the assistant recorder's fees.
