Bulletin: NE2011002

Dear Associates:

Below are selected Legislative Bills that were passed by the Nebraska Unicameral and approved by the Governor in the recently-concluded Legislative session, which will be of interest to Nebraska agents. 

1. L.B. 15:  Transcripts of judgments.  As originally introduced, this Bill provided that judgments in the District Court could be directed to a District Court in another County without the necessity of going through the formalities of transcribing the judgment.  The language was just imprecise enough that there was a question whether such a procedure would permit a lien on real estate without transcription to the receiving court.  A subsequent amendment, submitted by NLTA, clarified that real estate liens were not affected by this procedure, and that a formal transcript of judgment would still be required.  Therefore, it is still the law in Nebraska that a judgment in a District Court, to constitute a lien on real estate in another county, must be transcribed into the other District Court, as already prescribed by law.
    
2. L.B. 26:  Private Transfer Fees.  Nebraska joined numerous other states in prohibiting private transfer fees other than those fees provided for in instruments filed for record prior to April 9, 2011.  Since the Bill was passed with an emergency clause, it became law immediately upon its approval by the Governor on March 10, 2011.
    
3. L.B. 245:  Register of Deeds filing requirements.  This Bill imposes a number of formatting requirements for real estate documents presented to the Register of Deeds for recording.  These include font size, ink color, margins and other features.  Before being amended the Bill would have imposed a "nonconforming document fee" for several years, after which time the Register of Deeds would have been authorized to reject nonconforming documents.  This rather odious provision was amended out of the Bill at the urging of NLTA, and a document’s failure to conform to a particular requirement will not affect the Register of Deeds’ duty to accept the document.   L.B. 245 will become effective on August 27, 2011.
    
4. L.B. 264:  Requirements for State acquisition of property.  This Bill expands the process for approving, prior to acceptance by the State, the acquisition of real property to be acquired with proceeds from a donation, gift, devised, etc.  This will surely be of limited application, but one should be aware of the existence of new requirements.  

The year 2011 was a relatively quiet year, at least from the point of view of impacts on the title industry.  Since the 2011 session was the first of a split session, many Bills that were introduced but not acted on this year may be back in 2012.  Among these will be Bills to enact a Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act; a revised Uniform Unincorporated Nonprofit Association Act; and legislation that, it is to be fervently hoped, will once and for all establish the priority of Homeowners’ Association liens. 

Any past or present Bills and their legislative histories can be accessed on the Unicameral’s website:  http://www.nebraskalegislature.gov/bills/

If you have any questions relating to this or other bulletins, please contact a Stewart Title Guaranty Company underwriter.

For on-line viewing of this and other bulletins, please log onto www.vuwriter.com.