The Recording division of the County Clerk's office
The purpose of the Recording Division is to make and preserve public records dealing with real property transactions. Ownership of property can be traced back to the early 1850s in the records maintained by the Recording Division. The Recording Division also issues marriage licenses and has marriage records back to the late 1840s.
The duties of the Clackamas County Clerk have changed considerably since the early years. In 1983, The State of Oregon took over the District, Circuit, and Probate Courts from the county clerks. At that time, over half of the Clerk's employees became State employees. The Recording and Elections Divisions assumed the duties unrelated to the courts.
The Clackamas County Clerk will record all documents authorized by Oregon State or Federal law, rule or regulation affecting title to, or an interest in, real property. Documents must be properly executed and acknowledged, correctly identify the property, and meet all other form, titling and fee requirements to be recorded. All our records are preserved either on microfilm or computer image. We maintain a public viewing area for research and copying of records.
Recording Hours:
| Monday–Thursday | 9:00 a.m. – noon 1–4 p.m. (These hours are different from our office hours. These hours are when we are available to record property records.) |
| Friday (Open during the lunch hour.) |
8:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. |
In accordance with state laws, the County recording office must maintain a reputation for the recording and storage of public recorded instruments in a fair and open manner. Recordation of a document makes it a public record, putting the public on notice. Since the public and courts may use recorded instruments to establish validity of certain claims, all pages must be readable. Oregon statutes and Clackamas County counsel support the need for legible text within recorded documents.
If the legibility of an instrument or notary seal is questionable and a deadline may be compromised should the county recorder reject the document, you may want to consider preparing a new, legible original prior to submission. Client demands may not always make this possible, but the client should be made aware if legibility problems exist, and informed that there may be delays if documents are rejected.
Manager’s Index Notice
Documents listed below are indexed within a 10-business day period from being recorded:
- Death Certificates
- Deeds
- All Federal Tax Lien Types
- All Distraint Warrant Types
- All County Tax Warrant Types
- All Judgement Types
- All Clerk-Municipal Lien/Document Types
- All Assessment Lien Types
- All Hospital Lien Types
- All Construction Lien Types
- All Tax Deferred Property Types
- All UCC Mortgage Fixture types
- All types of Deed-Development Agreements
- All Deed-Municipal Documents
- All Lien-Completion Notices
- All HOA Lien Types
For all other documents the current month the Recording team is indexing is March 2021. Some document types are taking priority (ex. Liens, Clerk Liens, UCCs, certain Deed & Mortgage Documents). The above list will grow as those prioritized documents move into current status.
