Register of Deeds
| What is Recorded in the ROD? | |
| The Richland County Office is one of the busier ROD's in the state. Each year, over 110,000 deeds, mortgages, releases, plats, tax liens, and UCC filings are recorded. This office collects approximately $11 million annually in state and county fees and taxes. The documents filed in the office are public information and can be viewed by anyone who comes to search for the information. | |
| Who uses the Office? | |
| The most frequent visitors to the office are lawyers, paralegals, title abstractors, mortgage company employees, and land surveyors. These people earn a living by searching the public records to determine whether a parcel of real estate can be conveyed free of any encumbrances such as a lien for unpaid taxes or an unsatisfied mortgage. Once the records are searched, a lawyer will issue an "opinion" noting all defects or "clouds" to the title. In some cases, these defects must be resolved before ownership can be transferred. Defects which are not "cured" may pass to the next owner in the "chain of title", thus it is important that caution be taken in buying or selling real property. | |
| Other users of our information are people to come to our office, maybe once in a lifetime, to get a copy of their deed or mortgage. Still others are those interested in doing family histories and who use the office in addition to libraries, government archives, and the family bible to establish branches of the "family tree". For those of you in this category, we have employees available to help you get a copy of a document or even get you started on your research. "Searches" often take many hours to complete and, unfortunately, we do not have enough staff to do the search for you. Those who need advice on having a name "put on" or "taken off" a deed or who want to transfer ownership of their property to another person should contact an attorney to help them. We recommend that you get competent legal advice for all real estate transactions. Employees of the ROD Office may not help you fill out a deed as this is considered the "practice of law." If an attorney is desired, you may call the South Carolina Bar Association's "lawyer referral service" at 803-799-7100. They can arrange for you to meet with qualified attorney for a 30 minute session with an initial fee of no more than $25. | |
| Telephone Inquiries | |
| This kind of research is not easy to do over the phone because it is complex and time consuming. Therefore, "search questions" can not be handled over the telephone. We ask that you visit our customer service desk at the courthouse at 1701 Main Street or by writing us a letter a P.O. Box 192, Columbia, SC 29202. To hear a recorded message of our services after business hours, call (803) 576-1917. |
