Race-notice statute
National Real Estate Exam glossary · Transfer Of Title
Definition
A recording law under which a subsequent purchaser prevails over earlier unrecorded interests only if that purchaser both took without notice of the prior claim and recorded first. It blends the two other systems: a pure notice statute protects the later good-faith purchaser regardless of who records first, while a pure race statute rewards simply whoever records first.
Race-notice statute in plain English
Imagine two people both think they bought the same piece of land — the law needs a rule for who actually wins. A race-notice statute says the later buyer wins ONLY if they did two things: (1) they had no idea someone else already had a claim, AND (2) they were the first to officially file their deed at the county office ('recording'). It blends two simpler rules — a pure 'notice' system just protects an honest buyer who didn't know about the earlier claim, while a pure 'race' system simply rewards whoever files first, no questions asked. Race-notice demands BOTH: be honest and be quick.
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Practice Race-notice statute
In a 'race-notice' recording jurisdiction, who has priority of title?
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