ABOUT THE REGISTRAR OF DEEDS

The Office of Registrar of Deeds is vitally important to the ownership of real properties within Oklahoma County. It is the repository of all real property title and lien documents in the county and provides the historic record of ownership of each tract of land. All legal instruments, including plat maps, deeds, mortgages, oil and gas leases, tax liens, and military discharge papers, filed with the county by private citizens and public officials are preserved by the county clerk.

Complete written records are kept of all real estate transactions within the County of Oklahoma from the first patents, as granted by the United States Government; on through the territorial days and until the present time.

Duties & Functions

The office of Registrar of Deeds was historically an elective office of the county; but, by legislative act, the office was combined with that of county clerk, who is now the ex-officio Registrar of Deeds and is charged with the duties and functions of this office, which include maintaining the following:

• A record of all military discharges presented for filing by the members of the Armed Forces of the United States. This service is free.
• All city charters are filed in this office; also powers of attorney, trust agreements, final decrees, and divorce decrees when real estate is involved.
• An accurate and up to the minute record on every piece of property; and all mortgages, oil and gas and other mineral leases on every parcel in Oklahoma as well as all plats of developments or developed areas.

View a list of real estate document types (XLS).
 

Equipment & Systems Used

The office of the Oklahoma County Clerk has won national acclaim for its efficient operation through the use of the most modern equipment and methods available. The Photostat system of recording, and the use of microfilm, in its day the most efficient system available, have been enhanced with the addition of electronic document imaging as a method of preserving records.

The new Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) developed specifically for and installed in the Registrar of Deeds and the Uniform Commercial Code areas of the Oklahoma County Clerk's office was selected as one of the top three systems in the nation at the Industry Solutions Awards presentation at the Knowledge Management Expo'98 in Chicago.

Some benefits of the new system are:

• Extra protection for property owners. Compactness of optical disks enables storage of extra copies of all transactions in fireproof vaults, completely removed from the County Building. Improved disaster recovery procedures minimize the possibility of loss of information or documentation.
• Reduction of storage space to a fraction of that formerly needed, reducing operating costs and storage requirements.
• Speedy return of instruments tendered for filing

Intranet and Internet capabilities are built into the system. The new EDMS allows the County Assessor and the County Treasurer to interface with the County Clerk database via the county intranet.