Real Property

ARTICLE 9
RECORDING INSTRUMENTS AFFECTING REAL
PROPERTY
Section 290. Definitions; effect of article.
291. Recording of conveyances.
291-a. Recording conveyances of land in towns in Chautauqua
county; duties of county and town clerks.
291-b. Recording conveyances of land in towns in Cattaraugus
county; duties of county and town clerks.
291-c. Recording memoranda of leases.
291-cc. 1. Recording modifications of leases.
291-d. Recording of master forms of mortgage covenants and
clauses; incorporation thereof by reference.
291-e. Exceptions, reservations and recitals referring to
unrecorded conveyances and contracts for sale of real
property.
291-f. Rights where recorded mortgage restricts landlord`s
action in respect to leases.
291-g. Recording insurance information.
291-h. Recording of liens by the state.
292. By whom conveyance must be acknowledged or proved.
292-a. Conveyances by certain corporations executed and
acknowledged by attorneys in fact entitled to
recordation.
293. Recording of conveyances heretofore acknowledged or
proved.
294. Recording executory contracts and powers of attorney.
294-a. Recording assignments of rent.
294-b. Recording brokers affidavit of entitlement to
commission for completed brokerage services.
295. Recording of letters patent.
296. Recording copies of instruments which are in secretary
of state`s office.
297. Certified copies may be recorded.
297-a. Recording of certified copies of bankruptcy papers;
constructive notice.
297-b. Recording of certified copies of judgments affecting
real property.
298. Acknowledgments and proofs within the state.
299. Acknowledgments and proofs without the state, but
within the United States or any territory,
possession, or dependency thereof.
299-a. Acknowledgment to conform to law of New York or of
place where taken; certificate of conformity.
300. Acknowledgments and proofs by persons in or with the
armed forces of the United States.
301. Acknowledgments and proofs in foreign countries.
301-a. Acknowledgment to conform to law of New York or of
foreign country; certificate of conformity.
302. Acknowledgments and proofs by married women.
303. Requisites of acknowledgments.
304. Proof by subscribing witness.
305. Compelling witnesses to testify.
306. Certificate of acknowledgment or proof.
307. When certificate to state time and place.
308. When certificate must be under seal.
309. Acknowledgment by corporation and form of certificate.
309-a. Uniform forms of certificates of acknowledgment or
proof within this state.
309-b. Uniform forms of certificates of acknowledgement or
proof without this state.
310. Authentication of acknowledgments and proofs made
within the state.
311. Authentication of acknowledgments and proofs made
without the state.
312. Contents of certificate of authentication.
313. Notary public.
313-a. Deputies.
314. Recording of conveyances acknowledged or proved without
the state, when parties and certifying officer are
dead.
314-a. Proof when witnesses are dead.
315. Recording books.
316. Indexes.
316-a. Indexing and reindexing conveyances, mortgages and
other instruments.
316-b. Inactive hazardous waste disposal site registry index.
317. Order of recording.
318. Certificate to be recorded.
319. Time of recording.
320. Certain deeds deemed mortgages.
321. Recording discharge of mortgage.
321-a. Recording discharge of rent assignment.
324. Effect of recording assignment of mortgage.
325. Recording of conveyances made by treasurer of
Connecticut.
326. Revocation to be recorded.
327. Penalty for using long forms of covenants.
328. Certain acts not affected.
329. Actions to have certain instruments canceled of record.
330. Officers guilty of malfeasance liable for damages.
331. Laws and decrees of foreign countries appointing agents
and attorneys and recording of the same.
332. The record of certain conveyances validated.
332-a. Validation of the record, execution and proof or
acknowledgment of certain other instruments.
332-b. The record of certain other conveyances validated.
333. When conveyances of real property not to be recorded.
333-a. Same; maps to be filed.
333-b. Recording of maps or plot plans.
333-c. Lands in agricultural districts; disclosure.
334. Maps to be filed; penalty for nonfiling.
334-a. Filing of subdivision maps in Nassau county; penalty
for non-filing.
335. Filing of maps and abandonment of subdivisions in
Suffolk county; penalty for nonfiling.
335-a. Easements of necessity.
335-b. Recording of solar energy easements.
336. Effect of recording demands or requirements of alien
property custodian.

S 290. Definitions; effect of article. 1. The term "real property, "
as used in this article, includes lands, tenements and hereditaments and
chattels real, except a lease for a term not exceeding three years.
2. The term "purchaser" includes every person to whom any estate or
interest in real property is conveyed for a valuable consideration, and
every assignee of a mortgage, lease or other conditional estate.
3. The term "conveyance" includes every written instrument, by which
any estate or interest in real property is created, transferred,
mortgaged or assigned, or by which the title to any real property may be
affected, including an instrument in execution of a power, although the
power be one of revocation only, and an instrument postponing or
subordinating a mortgage lien; except a will, a lease for a term not
exceeding three years, an executory contract for the sale or purchase of
lands, and an instrument containing a power to convey real property as
the agent or attorney for the owner of such property.
4. The term "recording officer" means the county clerk of the county,
except in a county having a register, where it means the register of the
county.
5. "Recording" or "recorded" means the entry, at length, upon the
pages of the proper record books in a plain and legible hand writing, or
in print or in symbols of drawing or by photographic process or partly
in writing, partly in printing, partly in symbols of drawing or partly
by photographic process or by any combination of writing, printing,
drawing or photography or either or any two of them. "Recording" or
"recorded" also means the reproduction of instruments by
microphotography or other photographic process on film which is kept in
appropriate files.
6. This article does not apply to leases for life or lives, or for
years, heretofore made, of lands in either of the counties of Albany,
Ulster, Sullivan, Herkimer, Dutchess, Columbia, Delaware or Schenectady.

S 291. Recording of conveyances. A conveyance of real property,
within the state, on being duly acknowledged by the person executing the
same, or proved as required by this chapter, and such acknowledgment or
proof duly certified when required by this chapter, may be recorded in
the office of the clerk of the county where such real property is
situated, and such county clerk shall, upon the request of any party, on
tender of the lawful fees therefor, record the same in his said office.
Every such conveyance not so recorded is void as against any person who
subsequently purchases or acquires by exchange or contracts to purchase
or acquire by exchange, the same real property or any portion thereof,
or acquires by assignment the rent to accrue therefrom as provided in
section two hundred ninety-four-a of the real property law, in good
faith and for a valuable consideration, from the same vendor or
assignor, his distributees or devisees, and whose conveyance, contract
or assignment is first duly recorded, and is void as against the lien
upon the same real property or any portion thereof arising from payments
made upon the execution of or pursuant to the terms of a contract with
the same vendor, his distributees or devisees, if such contract is made
in good faith and is first duly recorded. Notwithstanding the
foregoing, any increase in the principal balance of a mortgage lien by
virtue of the addition thereto of unpaid interest in accordance with the
terms of the mortgage shall retain the priority of the original mortgage
lien as so increased provided that any such mortgage instrument sets
forth its terms of repayment.

S 291-a. Recording conveyances of land in towns in Chautauqua county;
duties of county and town clerks. 1. Every deed and will relating to
real property in Chautauqua county, outside the cities of Jamestown and
Dunkirk, and every judicial decree establishing the right of inheritance
to real property within Chautauqua county shall, before the same be
hereafter recorded in the office of the clerk of Chautauqua county be
presented to the clerk of said county together with a carbon copy or
copies of the substance thereof, equal to the number of townships of the
said county in which land is conveyed by the instrument. Such copy or
copies shall set forth the date, consideration, the names of the
grantors and grantees, the mail address of the grantee and a description
of the property conveyed as set out in the instrument of conveyance.
Such copy or copies of an instrument of conveyance of land within the
county of Chautauqua, outside the cities of Jamestown and Dunkirk, shall
be retained by the clerk of the said county until the first day of the
month succeeding the date on which it was received, and he thereafter
shall transmit immediately all such copies received by him during the
preceding month to the clerks of the towns in which such conveyances
have occurred. Hereafter the clerk of Chautauqua county or any
subordinate in the office of such clerk of Chautauqua county who shall
record any instrument of conveyance of real property without receiving
and transmitting to the town clerk of the town concerned, a copy thereof
as provided herein shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. At the time a
conveyance is offered for record a fee of twenty-five cents shall be
paid to the county clerk in addition to any other moneys required to be
paid to entitle the deed to be recorded.
The town clerks in each of the towns of Chautauqua county outside the
cities of Jamestown and Dunkirk, shall enter the copies of conveyances
and all appurtenant data so received from the clerk of Chautauqua county
in a record book to be provided and kept for such purpose. Such book and
the records contained therein shall be open to public inspection and
shall be used by the local assessors in making assessments.
2. Any deed or instrument of conveyance relating to real property
within the towns of Chautauqua, North Harmony, Ellicott, Ellery and
Busti or the village of Celoron, Chautauqua county, that for the first
time conveys an interest in a paper street located within either such
town or village to any grantee other than a not-for-profit corporation
incorporated pursuant to the laws of this state or similar association
or to a municipal corporation, notwithstanding the fact that such deed
or instrument shall have been recorded by the clerk of the county of
Chautauqua, shall be considered a nullity and given no force and effect
unless accompanied by a resolution of the town board of the town or of
the board of trustees of the village within which such paper street is
located authorizing that such deed or instrument be recorded. For the
purposes of this subdivision, a paper street shall mean a street that
was designed in a subdivision map when originally filed but which was
never subsequently developed or used as a public way.

S 291-b. Recording conveyances of land in towns in Cattaraugus
county; duties of county and town clerks. Every deed and will relating
to real property in Cattaraugus county, outside the cities of Olean and
Salamanca, and every judicial decree establishing the right of
inheritance to real property within Cattaraugus county shall, before the
same be hereafter recorded in the office of the clerk of Cattaraugus
county be presented to the clerk of said county together with a carbon
copy or copies of the substance thereof, equal to the number of
townships of the said county in which land is conveyed by the
instrument. Such copy or copies shall set forth the date,
consideration, the names of the grantors and grantees, the mail address
of the grantee and a description of the property conveyed as set out in
the instrument of conveyance. Such copy or copies of an instrument of
conveyance of land within the county of Cattaraugus, outside the cities
of Olean and Salamanca, shall be retained by the clerk of the said
county until the first day of the month succeeding the date on which it
was received, and he thereafter shall transmit immediately all such
copies received by him during the preceding month to the clerks of the
towns in which such conveyances have occurred. Hereafter the clerk of
Cattaraugus county or any subordinate in the office of such clerk of
Cattaraugus county who shall record any instrument of conveyance of real
property without receiving and transmitting to the town clerk of the
town concerned, a copy thereof as provided herein shall be guilty of a
misdemeanor. At the time a conveyance is offered for a record a fee of
twenty-five cents shall be paid to the county clerk in addition to any
other moneys required to be paid to entitle the deed to be recorded.
The town clerks in each of the towns of Cattaraugus county outside the
cities of Olean and Salamanca, shall enter the copies of conveyances and
all appurtenant data so received from the Clerk of Cattaraugus county in
a record book to be provided and kept for such purpose. Such book and
the records contained therein shall be open to public inspection and
shall be used by the local assessors in making assessments.

S 291-c. Recording memoranda of leases. In lieu of the recording of a
lease for a term exceeding three years, pursuant to section two hundred
ninety-one of this chapter, there may be recorded with like effect a
memorandum of such lease, executed by all persons who are parties to the
lease, and acknowledged or proved, and certified, in the manner to
entitle a conveyance to be recorded. A memorandum of lease thus entitled
to be recorded shall contain at least the following information with
respect to the lease: the name of the lessor and the name of the lessee
and the addresses, if any, set forth in the lease as addresses of such
parties; a reference to the lease, with its date of execution; a
description of the leased premises in the form contained in the lease;
the term of the lease, with the date of commencement and the date of
termination of such term, and if there is a right of extension or
renewal, the maximum period for which or date to which the lease may be
extended or the number of times or date to which it may be renewed, and
the date or dates on which such rights of extension or renewal are
exercisable.
Whenever a memorandum of lease is presented for recording, the lease
shall also be submitted to the recording officer for the purpose of
examination to determine whether or not such memorandum of lease is
subject to the tax on mortgages provided by article eleven of the tax
law.

S 291-cc. 1. Recording modifications of leases. Where a lease or
memorandum of such lease has been recorded, an unrecorded agreement
modifying such lease or memorandum is void as against a subsequent
purchaser in good faith and for a valuable consideration, and the
possession of the tenant shall not be deemed notice of the modification,
unless the agreement of modification or a memorandum thereof is recorded
prior to the recording of the instrument by which the subsequent
purchaser acquires his estate or interest.
2. A memorandum of an agreement modifying a lease shall contain at
least the following information with respect to the agreement: the names
of the parties and the addresses, if any, set forth in the agreement; a
reference to the agreement with its date of execution; a brief
description of the leased premises in form sufficient to identify the
same; any changes made by the agreement in the term of the lease and the
date of the termination of the lease as modified, and any changes in the
provisions of the lease as to the rights of extension or renewal.
3. For the purpose of this section the word "purchaser" includes a
person who purchases or acquires by exchange or contracts to purchase or
acquire by exchange the leased premises or the real property of which
the leased premises are part or any estate or interest therein, or
acquires by assignment the rent to accrue from tenancies or subtenancies
thereof in existence at the time of the assignment.

S 291-d. Recording of master forms of mortgage covenants and clauses;
incorporation thereof by reference.
1. An instrument containing a form or forms of mortgage covenants,
conditions, obligations, powers, releases, and other clauses may be
recorded in the office of the recording officer of any county and such
recording officer, upon the request of any person, on tender of the
lawful fees therefor, shall record the same in his said office. Every
such instrument shall be entitled on the face thereof as a "Master form
recorded by ....... (name of person causing the instrument to be
recorded). " Such instrument need not be acknowledged or proved or
certified to be entitled to record.
2. When any such instrument is recorded, the clerk or register shall
index such instrument under the name of the person causing it to be
recorded in the manner provided for miscellaneous instruments relating
to real property.
3. Thereafter any of the provisions of such master form instrument may
be incorporated by reference in any conveyance of real property situated
within the state, if such reference in the conveyance states that the
master form instrument was recorded in the county in which the
conveyance is offered for record, the date when and the office, book and
page or pages where such master form instrument was recorded, and that a
copy of such master form instrument was furnished to the person
executing the conveyance. The recording of any conveyance which has so
incorporated by reference therein any of the provisions of a master form
instrument recorded as provided in this section shall have like effect
as if such provisions of the master form so incorporated by reference
had been set forth fully in the conveyance.
4. Whenever an instrument of conveyance is presented for recording on
which is set forth matter purporting to be a copy or reproduction of
such master form instrument or of part thereof, identified by its title
as provided in subdivision one of this section and stating the date when
it was recorded and the county, office, book and page where it was
recorded, preceded by the words "do not record" or "not to be recorded,
" and plainly separated from the matter to be recorded as part of the
conveyance, in such manner that it will not appear upon a photographic
reproduction of any page containing any part of the conveyance, such
matter shall not be recorded by the county clerk or register to whom the
instrument is presented for recording; in such case the county clerk or
register shall record only the conveyance apart from such matter and
shall not be liable for so doing, any other provisions of law to the
contrary notwithstanding.
5. For the purposes of any provision of law relating to fees for
recording, entering or indexing of conveyances, or relating to searches,
furnishing of certified copies, reproduction by photographic method or
otherwise, or destruction, or to any other matter pertaining to the
powers and duties of recording officers with respect to conveyances,
except manner of indexing thereof, the master form instrument provided
for in subdivision one of this section shall be deemed a conveyance.

S 291-e. Exceptions, reservations and recitals referring to unrecorded
conveyances and contracts for sale of real property.
1. This section applies to any language, contained in a conveyance of
real property in this state, which (a) excepts or reserves a part or any
or all parts of the described premises which have been or may have been
previously conveyed, or previously contracted to be sold or exchanged,
by the grantor or by a previous owner, or (b) otherwise indicates that
the premises or some part or parts thereof have been or may have been
previously conveyed or that a contract has been or may have been
previously made for the sale or exchange of all or some part or parts
thereof, or (c) indicates that only such part of the premises described
is intended to be conveyed as the grantor, or a previous owner, has not
previously conveyed or has not previously contracted to sell or
exchange, and, in any of the cases described in this subdivision, fails
to identify the premises previously conveyed or contracted to be sold or
exchanged in any other manner than by indicating that a conveyance or
contract has previously been made or indicating the fact or possibility
that one or more conveyances or contracts have been or may have been
previously made.
2. An exception, reservation or recital described in subdivision one
of this section is (a) void as against a subsequent purchaser in good
faith and for a valuable consideration, who has no other notice of the
identity of the premises to which it refers, and (b) ineffective to give
notice to such subsequent purchaser of the previous conveyance or
contract so referred to or create any duty of inquiry with respect
thereto, unless, in either case, such previous conveyance or contract is
sufficient to identify the premises to which the exception, reservation
or recital refers and is recorded as provided in this article before the
recording of the instrument by which the subsequent purchaser acquires
his estate or interest.
3. For the purposes of this section,
(a) "Purchaser" includes a person who purchases or acquires by
exchange or contracts to purchase or acquire by exchange the same
premises or any portion thereof or estate or interest therein, or
acquires by assignment the rent to accrue from tenancies or subtenancies
thereof in existence at the time of the assignment.
(b) Contract for sale includes an option to purchase or lease.
(c) A lease, or a contract or option, is recorded when a memorandum
thereof is recorded as provided in section two hundred ninety-one-c or
section two hundred ninety-four of this chapter.
(d) The recording of a contract or option, or memorandum thereof,
pursuant to section two hundred ninety-four of this chapter, is
effective up to and including the thirtieth day after the day fixed
therein for the conveyance of title, or the thirtieth day after the last
day fixed therein for the exercise of the option, provided, that if a
written declaration of the exercise of the option has been recorded as
provided in subdivision seven of section two hundred ninety-four, the
recording of the option is effective to and including the thirtieth day
after the last day fixed pursuant to the option agreement for the
conveyance of title or the execution and delivery of the lease, as the
case may be. An agreement extending the time for the conveyance of
title, acknowledged or proved, and certified, in the manner to entitle a
conveyance to be recorded, may be recorded, and the recording shall be
effective up to and including the thirtieth day after the day fixed by
such agreement for the conveyance of title.
4. This section shall not impair the effect of an exception,
reservation or recital to limit any warranty of the grantor in the
conveyance in which it is contained.
5. This section shall apply where the instrument by which the
subsequent purchaser acquires his estate or interest is executed on or
after September first, nineteen hundred sixty, except that where the
conveyance containing an exception, reservation or recital described in
subdivision one of this section was executed before September first,
nineteen hundred sixty, this section shall apply only where the
instrument by which the subsequent purchaser acquires his estate or
interest is executed on or after September first, nineteen hundred
sixty-one.

S 291-f. Rights where recorded mortgage restricts landlord`s action in
respect to leases. An agreement, referring to this section, contained
in a recorded mortgage of real property, or in a recorded instrument
relating to such mortgage, restricting the right or power, as against
the holder of the mortgage without his consent, of the owner of the
mortgaged real property to cancel, abridge or otherwise modify
tenancies, subtenancies, leases or subleases of the mortgaged real
property in existence at the time of the agreement, or to accept
prepayments of instalments of rent to become due thereunder, shall
become binding on a tenant or subtenant after written notice of such
agreement, accompanied by a copy of the text thereof; and any such
cancellation, abridgement, modification or prepayment made by such
tenant or subtenant, after such written notice, without the consent of
the holder of such mortgage, shall be voidable as against the holder, at
his option. The recording on or after July first, nineteen hundred
sixty, of any such mortgage or instrument relating thereto shall for the
purposes of this section be in itself a sufficient notice of the
restrictive agreement to any tenant or subtenant who, after such
recording, acquires by assignment, whether the assignment is by
instrument or by operation of law, a leasehold estate in existence at
the time of the restrictive agreement. This section shall not apply (1)
to any tenancy, subtenancy, lease or sublease primarily for the
residential purposes of the owner of the leasehold estate, or (2) to any
tenancy, subtenancy, lease or sublease having at the time of the
restrictive agreement an unexpired term of less than five years.

S 291-g. Recording insurance information. Every owner of a multiple
dwelling, as defined in subdivision two of section two hundred
thirty-nine-a of this chapter, which is located in a city with a
population in excess of one million persons shall file with the
department of housing preservation and development an instrument
containing the name or names of the insurer issuing a fire, casualty
and/or liability insurance policy for the multiple dwelling, the address
of the insurance company and the policy number.

S 291-h. Recording of liens by the state. The state may cause to be
filed in the appropriate office of the city register of the city of New
York or in the county clerk`s office of the county of Richmond or in the
county clerk`s office of any other county of the state where the real
property is situated a notice of lien created by the application for and
receipt of state aid provided pursuant to section 41.27 of the mental
hygiene law or by the application for and receipt of state aid provided
pursuant to section 25.03 of the mental hygiene law and any regulations
promulgated in connection therewith. Such notice shall briefly state the
recipient of the state aid, conditions of the provision of the state aid
and shall contain a general description by metes and bounds or by
section, block and lot number of the real property to be acquired
thereby.

S 292. By whom conveyance must be acknowledged or proved. Except as
otherwise provided by this article, such acknowledgment can be made only
by the person who executed the conveyance, and such proof can be made
only by some other person, who was a witness of its execution, and at
the same time subscribed his name to the conveyance as a witness.

S 292-a. Conveyances by certain corporations executed and
acknowledged by attorneys in fact entitled to recordation. A conveyance
of real property, within the state, or of any interest therein,
including an instrument discharging or satisfying a lien created by any
such conveyance, executed and acknowledged by an attorney in fact of any
corporation wholly owned, directly or indirectly, by the United States
of America, or any other corporation which has so filed a power of
attorney, whether heretofore or hereafter so executed and acknowledged,
shall be entitled to recordation under this article on tender of the
lawful fees therefor, even though the corporate seal of such corporation
be not annexed or affixed, if the power of attorney pursuant to which
such attorney in fact has executed such conveyance, duly acknowledged or
proved by such corporation, and certified, as required by section two
hundred ninety-four, is filed or recorded in the office of the clerk of
the county where the real property, which is the subject of such
conveyance, is located.

S 293. Recording of conveyances heretofore acknowledged or proved. A
conveyance of real property, within the state, heretofore executed, and
heretofore acknowledged or proved, and certified, so as to be entitled
to be read in evidence, or recorded, under the laws in force at the time
when so acknowledged or proved, but which has not been recorded is
entitled to be read in evidence, and recorded in the same manner, and
with the like effect, as if this chapter had not been passed. If
heretofore executed, but not proved or acknowledged, it may be proved or
acknowledged in the same manner as conveyances hereafter executed and
with like effect.

S 294. Recording executory contracts and powers of attorney. 1. An
executory contract for the sale, purchase or exchange of real property,
or an instrument canceling such a contract, or an instrument containing
a power to convey real property, as the agent or attorney for the owner
of the property, acknowledged or proved, and certified, in the manner to
entitle a conveyance to be recorded, may be recorded in the office of
the recording officer of any county in which any of the real property to
which it relates is situated, and such recording officer shall, upon the
request of any party, on tender of the lawful fees therefor, record the
same in his said office.
2. In lieu of the recording of an executory contract, there may be
recorded a memorandum thereof, executed by the parties, and acknowledged
or proved, and certified, in the manner to entitle a conveyance to be
recorded, containing at least the following information with respect to
the contract: the names of the parties to the contract, the time fixed
by the contract for the conveyance of title, and a description of the
property. The executory contract shall be deemed duly recorded upon the
recording of a memorandum in conformity with this subdivision.
If the purchaser is entitled to possession of the property under the
terms of the contract, the memorandum must so state. The provisions of
article eleven of the tax law shall not be applicable to an executory
contract for the sale, purchase or exchange of real property, or
memorandum thereof, unless the contract provides that the purchaser is
entitled to possession of the property.
3. Every executory contract for the sale, purchase or exchange of real
property not recorded as provided in this section shall be void as
against any person who subsequently purchases or acquires by exchange or
contracts to purchase or acquire by exchange, the same real property or
any portion thereof, or acquires by assignment the rent to accrue
therefrom as provided in section two hundred ninety-four-a of the real
property law, in good faith and for a valuable consideration, from the
same vendor or assignor, his distributees or devisees, and whose
conveyance, contract or assignment is first duly recorded, and shall be
void as against the lien upon the same real property or any portion
thereof arising from payments made upon the execution of or pursuant to
the terms of a contract with the same vendor, his distributees or
devisees, if such contract is made in good faith and is first duly
recorded.
4. (a) Where an executory contract is duly recorded as provided in
this section the right of the purchaser to performance of the contract
is enforceable against a person who, subsequent to the recording and
while the recording is effective as provided in this section, purchases
or acquires by exchange the same real property or any part thereof, from
the same vendor, his distributees or devisees.
(b) If the recorded contract provides for payments made or to be made
by the purchaser before conveyance of title, including payments made at
the execution of the contract, or if the recorded memorandum states that
the contract so provides, the lien of the purchaser arising from any
such payments actually made is enforceable against any such person
described in paragraph (a) to the extent of such payments, not exceeding
the total amount specified in the recorded contract or memorandum, and
is so enforceable without regard to any notice of the estate or interest
of such person.
5. The recording of the executory contract or memorandum shall be
effective for the purposes of subdivision four up to and including the
thirtieth day after the day fixed by the contract for the conveyance of
title. An agreement extending the time for the conveyance of title,
acknowledged or proved, and certified, in the manner to entitle a
conveyance to be recorded, may be recorded, and the recording shall be
effective up to and including the thirtieth day after the day fixed by
such agreement for the conveyance of title.
6. An executory contract or memorandum thereof shall not be deemed
recorded as provided in this section if it is recorded more than one
year previous to the date on which the vendor acquired title to the real
property to which the contract relates.
An executory contract recorded before the date when the vendor
acquired title shall not be deemed recorded as provided in this section
as against a person to whom the real property is conveyed or contracted
to be sold or exchanged, by a conveyance or contract which is part of
the transaction in which the vendor acquired title.
7. An option to purchase or lease real property shall be deemed an
executory contract within the meaning of this section, except that the
recording of the option agreement shall be effective only up to and
including the thirtieth day after the last day fixed by the agreement
for the exercise of the option. If the option is exercised in accordance
with the terms of the option agreement, the optionee may extend the
effectiveness of the recording of the option agreement to and including
the thirtieth day after the day fixed pursuant to the option agreement
for the conveyance of title or the execution and delivery of the lease,
as the case may be, by recording, within thirty days after the last day
fixed by the option agreement for the exercise of the option, a written
declaration executed by the optionor and the optionee, or by the
optionee alone, and acknowledged or proved and certified in the manner
to entitle a conveyance to be recorded, stating that the said option has
been duly exercised and setting forth the day fixed pursuant to the
option agreement for the conveyance of title or the execution and
delivery of the lease, as the case may be. In the event that such
declaration is executed by the optionee alone, it shall be verified by
the optionee and shall also set forth the time and manner in which such
option was exercised and, if the last day for the conveyance of title or
the execution and delivery of the lease is not specified in the option
agreement, the extension of the effectiveness of the recording of the
option agreement shall in no event exceed ninety days from the date of
the recording of such declaration.
8. (a) After the recording of an executory contract or memorandum has
ceased to be effective as provided in subdivision five, or the recording
of an option to purchase or lease real property has ceased to be
effective as provided in subdivision seven, such executory contract,
memorandum or option shall be (1) void as against a subsequent purchaser
in good faith and for a valuable consideration, who has no other notice
of an estate or interest of the contract vendee or optionee in the
premises to which such contract, memorandum or option refers, or of any
claim thereof, and (2) ineffective to give notice to such subsequent
purchaser of any estate or interest of the contract vendee or optionee
in such premises, or of any claim thereof, or to create any duty of
inquiry with respect thereto.
(b) For the purposes of this subdivision, "purchaser" includes a
person who purchases or acquires by exchange or contracts to purchase or
acquire by exchange the same premises or any portion thereof or estate
or interest therein, or acquires by assignment the rent to accrue from
tenancies or subtenancies thereof in existence at the time of the
assignment.

S 294-a. Recording assignments of rent. 1. An assignment of rent to
accrue from tenancies, subtenancies, leases or subleases of real
property, irrespective of the term of their duration, in existence at
the time of the assignment, made, subscribed and acknowledged or proved,
and certified in a manner to entitle a conveyance to be recorded may be
recorded in the office of the recording officer of any county in which
any of the real property to which the tenancies, subtenancies, leases or
subleases relate is situated, and such recording officer shall, upon the
request of any party, on tender of the lawful fees therefor, record the
same in his said office.
2. Every such assignment not so recorded shall be void as against any
person who subsequently purchases or acquires by exchange, or contracts
to purchase or acquire by exchange, the same real property, or any
portion thereof, or acquires by assignment the rent to accrue therefrom
as provided in this section, in good faith and for a valuable
consideration, from the same vendor or assignor, his distributees or
devisees, and whose conveyance, contract or assignment is first duly
recorded.
3. The recording of such assignment shall not be in itself a notice of
the assignment to a lessee or tenant, his distributees or devisees, so
as to invalidate a payment of rent made by the lessee or tenant, his
distributees or devisees, to the assignor or a prior assignee of the
rent.

S 294-b. Recording brokers affidavit of entitlement to commission for
completed brokerage services. 1. A duly licensed real estate broker who
asserts that he or she has produced a person who was ready, able and
willing to purchase or lease all or any part of a parcel of real
property pursuant to a written or oral contract of brokerage employment
between the owner of said parcel of real property and such broker, and
who asserts that such person or a party acting on his or her behalf
subsequently contracted to purchase or lease, or did purchase or lease
such real property or any part thereof, and who asserts that he or she
is entitled to a commission pursuant to such written or oral contract,
may file an affidavit of entitlement to commission for completed
brokerage services in the office of the recording officer of any county
in which any of the real property is situated.
2. Such affidavit shall include: (i) the name and license number of
the broker claiming the commission; (ii) the name of the seller or
person responsible for commission; (iii) the name of the person
authorizing the sale on behalf of the seller, if any, and the date of
such authorization; (iv) a copy of the written agreement, if any; (v) a
description of real property involved; (vi) the amount of commission
claimed; (vii) a description of the brokerage services performed; and
(viii) the dates thereof. Recording such affidavit shall not invalidate
any transfer of real property or lease thereof. Such affidavit shall not
be deemed to create a lien and shall be discharged one year after
filing.
3. Upon receipt by the county clerk of a broker`s affidavit of
entitlement to commission for completed brokerage services for the
purpose of recording, entering and indexing, the clerk shall note
thereon that such notice does not constitute a lien nor shall it
invalidate any transfer or lease. In payment for said services the
county clerk shall be entitled to receive a fee equivalent to that
received for recording a deed and pages thereof.

S 295. Recording of letters patent. Letters patent, issued under the
great seal of the state, granting real property, may be recorded in the
county where such property is situated, in the same manner and with like
effect, as a conveyance duly acknowledged or proved and certified so as
to entitle it to be recorded.

S 296. Recording copies of instruments which are in secretary of
state`s office. A copy of an instrument affecting real property, within
the state, recorded or filed in the office of the secretary of state,
certified in the manner required to entitle the same to be read in
evidence, may be recorded with such certificate in the office of any
recording officer of the state.

S 297. Certified copies may be recorded. A copy of a record, or of
any recorded instrument, certified or authenticated so as to be entitled
to be read in evidence, may be again recorded in any office where the
original would be entitled to be recorded. Such record has the same
effect as if the original were so recorded. A copy of a conveyance or
mortgage affecting separate parcels of real property situated in
different counties, or of the record of such conveyance or mortgage in
one of such counties, certified or authenticated so as to be entitled to
be read in evidence, may be recorded in any county in which any such
parcel is situated, with the same effect as if the original instrument
authenticated as required by section three hundred and ten of this
chapter were so recorded.

S 297-a. Recording of certified copies of bankruptcy papers;
constructive notice. 1. A copy of a petition in bankruptcy with the
schedules omitted, of a decree of adjudication of bankruptcy and of an
order approving the bond of a trustee in bankruptcy, or any of them, in
each case certified in accordance with the laws of the United States
applicable at the time of certification, may be recorded in the office
of the recording officer of any county, irrespective of the location of
the United States district court having jurisdiction of the bankruptcy
proceeding or in which such petition was filed or order of adjudication
or approval of the trustee`s bond was made.
2. (a) Each paper, together with the certification thereof, recorded
pursuant to this section shall, for the purposes of recording,
transcription, reproduction and indexing, be regarded as a deed by the
bankrupt or alleged bankrupt to the trustee in bankruptcy named therein
or, if no trustee be named, to the trustee appointed, or thereafter to
be appointed.
(b) In counties where, under certain circumstances and pursuant to
law, deeds or other instruments are recordable among miscellaneous
instruments, or indexed in the index of such instruments, each of the
papers shall be similarly recorded or indexed. In other counties or
cases, it shall be recorded or indexed as a deed.
(c) Where the paper so recorded does not reveal the name of the
trustee in bankruptcy, the recording officer shall substitute, for the
name of the grantee in the index or indices in his office where the name
of the grantee in a deed is required to be entered, the words "Trustee
in bankruptcy"; but any irregularity or failure of the recording officer
in compliance with this paragraph shall not invalidate the record
thereof.
(d) The recording of the paper and the certification thereof shall
have the same effect as constructive notice as if it were a conveyance
to a named grantee, duly acknowledged or proved and recorded. (e) The
petition, decree or order referred to in subdivision 1 of this section
may be one either heretofore or hereafter filed or made pursuant to any
law of the United States relating to bankruptcy.

S 297-b. Recording of certified copies of judgments affecting real
property. When a judgment, final order or decree is rendered by a New
York state court of record or a United States district court affecting
the title to or possession, use or enjoyment of real property, a copy of
such judgment, order or decree, duly certified by the clerk of the court
wherein said judgment was rendered, may be recorded in the office of the
recording officer of the county in which such property is situated, in
the same manner as a conveyance duly acknowledged or proved and
certified so as to entitle it to be recorded, and such recording officer
shall upon request and on tender of the lawful fees therefor, record the
same in his said office.
For purposes of recording and indexing such judgment, order or decree,
the prevailing party or parties named therein shall be deemed grantees
and all other persons named therein shall be deemed grantors.

S 298. Acknowledgments and proofs within the state. The
acknowledgment or proof, within this state, of a conveyance of real
property situate in this state may be made: 1. At any place within the
state, before (a) a justice of the supreme court; (b) an official
examiner of title; (c) an official referee; or (d) a notary public.
2. Within the district wherein such officer is authorized to perform
official duties, before (a) a judge or clerk of any court of record; (b)
a commissioner of deeds outside of the city of New York, or a
commissioner of deeds of the city of New York within the five counties
comprising the city of New York; (c) the mayor or recorder of a city;
(d) a surrogate, special surrogate, or special county judge; or (e) the
county clerk or other recording officer of a county.
3. Before a justice of the peace, town councilman, village police
justice or a judge of any court of inferior local jurisdiction, anywhere
within the county containing the town, village or city in which he is
authorized to perform official duties.

S 299. Acknowledgments and proofs without the state, but within the
United States or any territory, possession, or dependency thereof. The
acknowledgment or proof of a conveyance of real property situate in this
state, if made (a) without the state but within the United States, (b)
within any territory, possession, or dependency of the United States, or
(c) within any place over which the United States, at the time when such
acknowledgment or proof is taken, has or exercises jurisdiction,
sovereignty, control, or a protectorate, may be made before any of the
following officers acting within his territorial jurisdiction or within
that of the court of which he is an officer: 1. A judge or other
presiding officer of any court having a seal, or the clerk or other
certifying officer thereof.
2. A mayor or other chief civil officer of any city or other political
subdivision.
3. A notary public.
4. A commissioner of deeds appointed pursuant to the laws of this
state to take acknowledgments or proofs without this state.
5. Any person authorized, by the laws of the state, District of
Columbia, territory, possession, dependency, or other place where the
acknowledgment or proof is made, to take the acknowledgment or proof of
deeds to be recorded therein.

S 299-a. Acknowledgment to conform to law of New York or of place
where taken; certificate of conformity. 1. An acknowledgment or proof
made pursuant to the provisions of section two hundred ninety-nine of
this chapter may be taken in the manner prescribed either by the laws of
the state of New York or by the laws of the state, District of Columbia,
territory, possession, dependency, or other place where the
acknowledgment or proof is taken. The acknowledgment or proof, if taken
in the manner prescribed by such state, District of Columbia, territory,
possession, dependency, or other place, must be accompanied by a
certificate to the effect that it conforms with such laws. Such
certificate may be made by (a) An attorney-at-law admitted to practice
in the state of New York, resident in the place where the acknowledgment
or proof is taken, or by (b) An attorney-at-law admitted to practice in
the state, District of Columbia, territory, possession, dependency, or
other place where the acknowledgment or proof is taken, or by (c) Any
other person deemed qualified by any court of the state of New York, if,
in any action, proceeding, or other matter pending before such court, it
be necessary to determine that such acknowledgment or proof conforms
with the laws of such state, District of Columbia, territory,
possession, dependency, or other place; or by the supreme court of the
state of New York, on application for such determination. The justice,
judge, surrogate, or other presiding judicial officer shall append to
the instrument so acknowledged or proved his signed statement that he
deemed such person qualified to make such certificate.
2. (a) The signature to such a certificate of conformity shall be
presumptively genuine, and the qualification of the person whose name is
so signed as a person authorized to make such certificate shall be
presumptively established by the recital thereof in the certificate.
(b) The statement of a judicial officer appended to the instrument that
he deemed the person making such certificate qualified shall establish
the qualification of the person designated therein to make such
certificate; and the recording, filing, registering or use as evidence
of the instrument shall not depend on the power of the court to make the
statement and proof shall not be required of any action, proceeding,
matter or application in which or in connection with which the statement
is made. (c) When an instrument so acknowledged or proved is
accompanied by the certificate of conformity and the statement of a
judicial officer, if any be required, the acknowledgment or proof of the
instrument, for the purpose of recording, filing or registering in any
recording or filing office in this state or for use as evidence, shall
be equivalent to one taken or made in the form prescribed by law for use
in this state; and if the acknowledgment or proof is properly
authenticated, where authentication is required by law, and if the
instrument be otherwise entitled to record, filing or registering, such
instrument, together with the acknowledgment or proof, the certificate
of conformity and any certificate of authentication or statement of a
judicial officer, may be recorded, filed or registered in any recording
or filing office in this state, and shall be so recorded, filed or
registered upon payment or tender of lawful fees therefor. In fixing the
fees of a recording, filing or registering officer, the certificate of
conformity and the statement of a judicial officer appended, if any,
shall be treated as certificates of authentication required by other
provisions of this chapter.

S 300. Acknowledgments and proofs by persons in or with the armed
forces of the United States. The acknowledgment or proof of a
conveyance of real property situate in this state, if made by a person
enlisted or commissioned in or serving in or with the armed forces of
the United States or by a dependent of any such person, wherever
located, or by a person attached to or accompanying the armed forces of
the United States, whether made within or without the United States, may
be made before any commissioned officer in active service of the armed
forces of the United States with the rank of second lieutenant or higher
in the Army, Air Force or Marine Corps, or ensign or higher in the Navy
or Coast Guard, or with equivalent rank in any other component part of
the armed forces of the United States.
In addition to the requirements of sections three hundred and three,
three hundred and four, and three hundred and six of this chapter, the
certificate of an acknowledgment or proof taken under this section shall
state (a) the rank and serial number of the officer taking the same, and
the command to which he is attached, (b) that the person making such
acknowledgment or proof was, at the time of making the same, enlisted or
commissioned in or serving in or with the armed forces of the United
States or the dependent of such a person, or a person attached to or
accompanying the armed forces of the United States, and (c) the serial
number of the person who makes, or whose dependent makes the
acknowledgment or proof if such person is enlisted or commissioned in
the armed forces of the United States. The place where such
acknowledgment or proof is taken need not be disclosed.
No authentication of the officer`s certificate of acknowledgment or
proof shall be required.
Notwithstanding any of the provisions of this section, the
acknowledgment or proof of a conveyance of real property situate in this
state may also be made as provided in sections two hundred ninety-eight,
two hundred ninety-nine, two hundred ninety-nine-a, three hundred one,
and three hundred one-a, of this chapter.

S 301. Acknowledgments and proofs in foreign countries. The
acknowledgment or proof of a conveyance of real property situate in this
state may be made in foreign countries before any of the following
officers acting within his territorial jurisdiction or within that of
the court of which he is an officer: 1. An ambassador, envoy, minister,
charge d`affaires, secretary of legation, consul-general, consul,
vice-consul, consular agent, vice-consular agent, or any other
diplomatic or consular agent or representative of the United States,
appointed or accredited to, and residing within, the country where the
acknowledgment or proof is taken.
2. A judge or other presiding officer of any court having a seal, or
the clerk or other certifying officer thereof.
3. A mayor or other chief civil officer of any city or other political
subdivision.
4. A notary public.
5. A commissioner of deeds appointed pursuant to the laws of this
state to take acknowledgments or proofs without this state.
6. A person residing in, or going to, the country where the
acknowledgment or proof is to be taken, and specially authorized for
that purpose by a commission issued to him under the seal of the supreme
court of the state of New York.
7. Any person authorized, by the laws of the country where the
acknowledgment or proof is made, to take acknowledgments of conveyances
of real estate or to administer oaths in proof of the execution thereof.

S 301-a. Acknowledgment to conform to law of New York or of foreign
country; certificate of conformity. 1. An acknowledgment or proof made
pursuant to the provisions of section three hundred one of this chapter
may be taken in the manner prescribed either by the laws of the state of
New York or by the laws of the country where the acknowledgment or proof
is taken. The acknowledgment or proof, if taken in the manner prescribed
by the laws of such foreign country, must be accompanied by a
certificate to the effect that it conforms with such laws. Such
certificate may be made by
(a) An attorney-at-law admitted to practice in the state of New York,
resident in such foreign country, or by
(b) A consular officer of the United States, resident in such foreign
country, under the seal of his office, or by
(c) A consular officer of such foreign country, resident in the state
of New York, under the seal of his office, or by
(d) Any other person deemed qualified by any court of the state of New
York, if, in any action, proceeding, or other matter pending before such
court, it be necessary to determine that such acknowledgment or proof
conforms with the laws of such foreign country; or by the supreme court
of the state of New York, on application for such determination.
The justice, judge, surrogate, or other presiding judicial officer
shall append to the instrument so acknowledged or proved his signed
statement that he deemed such person qualified to make such certificate.
2. (a) The signature to such a certificate of conformity shall be
presumptively genuine, and the qualification of the person whose name is
so signed as a person authorized to make such certificate shall be
presumptively established by the recital thereof in the certificate.
(b) The statement of a judicial officer appended to the instrument
that he deemed the person making such certificate qualified shall
establish the qualification of the person designated therein to make
such certificate; and the recording, filing, registering or use as
evidence of the instrument shall not depend on the power of the court to
make the statement and proof shall not be required of any action,
proceeding, matter or application in which or in connection with which
the statement is made.
(c) When an instrument so acknowledged or proved is accompanied by the
certificate of conformity and the statement of a judicial officer, if
any be required, the acknowledgment or proof of the instrument, for the
purpose of recording, filing or registering in any recording or filing
office in this state or for use as evidence, shall be equivalent to one
taken or made in the form prescribed by law for use in this state; and
if the acknowledgment or proof is properly authenticated, where
authentication is required by law, and if the instrument be otherwise
entitled to record, filing or registering, such instrument, together
with the acknowledgment or proof, the certificate of conformity and any
certificate of authentication or statement of a judicial officer, may be
recorded, filed or registered in any recording or filing office in this
state, and shall be so recorded, filed or registered upon payment or
tender of lawful fees therefor. In fixing the fees of a recording,
filing or registering officer, the certificate of conformity and the
statement of a judicial officer appended, if any, shall be treated as
certificates of authentication required by other provisions of this
chapter.

S 302. Acknowledgments and proofs by married women. The acknowledgment
or proof of a conveyance of real property, within the state, or of any
other written instrument, may be made by a married woman the same as if
unmarried.

S 303. Requisites of acknowledgments. An acknowledgment must not be
taken by any officer unless he knows or has satisfactory evidence, that
the person making it is the person described in and who executed such
instrument.

S 304. Proof by subscribing witness. When the execution of a
conveyance is proved by a subscribing witness, such witness must state
his own place of residence, and if his place of residence is in a city,
the street and street number, if any thereof, and that he knew the
person described in and who executed the conveyance. The proof must not
be taken unless the officer is personally acquainted with such witness,
or has satisfactory evidence that he is the same person, who was a
subscribing witness to the conveyance.

S 305. Compelling witnesses to testify. On the application of a
grantee in a conveyance, his heir or personal representative, or a
person claiming under either of them, verified by the oath of the
applicant, stating that a witness to the conveyance, residing in the
county where the application is made, refuses to appear and testify
concerning its execution, and that such conveyance can not be proved
without his testimony, any officer authorized to take, within the state,
acknowledgment or proof of conveyance of real property may issue a
subpoena, requiring such witness to attend and testify before him
concerning the execution of the conveyance. A subpoena issued under this
section shall be regulated by the civil practice law and rules.

S 306. Certificate of acknowledgment or proof. A person taking the
acknowledgement or proof of a conveyance must indorse thereupon or
attach thereto, a certificate, signed by himself, stating all the
matters required to be done, known, or proved on the taking of such
acknowledgement or proof; together with the name and substance of the
testimony of each witness examined before him, and if a subscribing
witness, his place of residence.
Any conveyance which has heretofore been recorded, or which may
hereafter be recorded, shall be deemed to have been duly acknowledged or
proved and properly authenticated, when ten years have elapsed since
such recording; saving, however, the rights of every purchaser in good
faith and for a valuable consideration deriving title from the same
vendor or grantor, his heirs or devisees, to the same property or any
portion thereof, whose conveyance shall have been duly recorded before
the said period of ten years shall have elapsed.

S 307. When certificate to state time and place. When the
acknowledgment or proof is taken by a commissioner of deeds appointed
pursuant to the laws of this state to take acknowledgments or proofs
without this state, whether within or without the United States, the
certificate must also state the day on which, and the city or other
political subdivision, and the state or country or other place in which,
the same was taken.

S 308. When certificate must be under seal. 1. When a certificate of
acknowledgment or proof is made without this state, whether within or
without the United States, (a) if made by a judge or other presiding
officer of a court having a seal, or by the clerk or other certifying
officer thereof, such certificate must be under the seal of such court;
(b) if made by a commissioner of deeds appointed pursuant to the laws of
this state to take acknowledgments or proofs without this state, such
certificate must be under his seal of office; (c) if made by any officer
specified in subdivision one of section three hundred one of this
chapter, such certificate must be under the seal of the legation or
consulate to which such officer is attached.
2. Any certificate, required by the provisions of section three
hundred eleven of this chapter to be authenticated, must be so
authenticated, in addition to being under seal as provided in this
section.

S 309. Acknowledgment by corporation and form of certificate. 1. The
acknowledgment of a conveyance or other instrument by a corporation,
must be made by an officer or attorney in fact duly appointed, or in
case of a dissolved corporation, by an officer, director or attorney in
fact duly appointed thereof authorized to execute the same by the board
of directors of said corporation.
2. The certificate of acknowledgment must conform substantially with
one of the following alternative forms, the blanks being properly
filled:
State of New York )ss.:
County of..... )
On the....... day of....... in the year....... before me personally
came....... to me known, who, being by me duly sworn, did depose and say
that he/she/they reside(s) in....... (if the place of residence is in a
city, include the street and street number, if any, thereof); that
he/she/they is (are) the (president or other officer or director or
attorney in fact duly appointed) of the (name of corporation), the
corporation described in and which executed the above instrument; that
he/she/they know(s) the seal of said corporation; that the seal affixed
to said instrument is such corporate seal; that it was so affixed by
authority of the board of directors of said corporation, and that
he/she/they signed his/her/their name(s) thereto by like authority.
(Signature and office of person taking acknowledgment.)
State of New York )ss.:
County of..... )
On the....... day of....... in the year....... before me personally
came....... to me known, who, being by me duly sworn, did depose and say
that he/she/they reside(s) in....... (if the place of residence is in a
city, include the street and street number, if any, thereof); that
he/she/they is (are) the (president or other officer or director or
attorney in fact duly appointed) of the (name of corporation), the
corporation described in and which executed the above instrument; and
that he/she/they signed his/her/their name(s) thereto by authority of
the board of directors of said corporation.
(Signature and office of person taking acknowledgment.)
3. Subdivision two of this section shall be inapplicable to the
acknowledgment, within this state, of a conveyance or other instrument
in respect to real property situate in this state executed on or after
the first day of September, nineteen hundred ninety-nine. A certificate
of such an acknowledgment shall be subject to the provisions of section
three hundred nine-a of this article.

S 309-a. Uniform forms of certificates of acknowledgment or proof
within this state. 1. The certificate of an acknowledgment, within this
state, of a conveyance or other instrument in respect to real property
situate in this state, by a person, must conform substantially with the
following form, the blanks being properly filled:
State of New York)
)ss.:
County of ............)
On the .......... day of ........ in the year ..... before me, the
undersigned, personally appeared ........, personally known to me or
proved to me on the basis of satisfactory evidence to be the
individual(s) whose name(s) is (are) subscribed to the within instrument
and acknowledged to me that he/she/they executed the same in
his/her/their capacity(ies), and that by his/her/their signature(s) on
the instrument, the individual(s), or the person upon behalf of which
the individual(s) acted, executed the instrument.
(Signature and office of individual taking acknowledgement.)
2. The certificate for a proof of execution by a subscribing witness,
within this state, of a conveyance or other instrument made by any
person in respect to real property situate in this state, must conform
substantially with the following form, the blanks being properly filled:
State of New York)
)ss.:
County of ........)
On the ....... day of ...... in the year .... before me, the
undersigned, personally appeared ......, the subscribing witness to the
foregoing instrument, with whom I am personally acquainted, who, being
by me duly sworn, did depose and say that he/she/they reside(s) in
......(if the place of residence is in a city, include the street and
street number, if any, thereof); that he/she/they know(s)...........to
be the individual described in and who executed the foregoing
instrument; that said subscribing witness was present and saw said
.......execute the same; and that said witness at the same time
subscribed his/her/their name(s) as a witness thereto.
(Signature and office of individual taking proof.)
3. A certificate of an acknowledgement or proof taken under section
three hundred of this article shall include the additional information
required by that section.
4. For the purposes of this section, the term "person" means any
corporation, joint stock company, estate, general partnership (including
any registered limited liability partnership or foreign limited
liability partnership), limited liability company (including a
professional service limited liability company), foreign limited
liability company (including a foreign professional service limited
liability company), joint venture, limited partnership, natural person,
attorney in fact, real estate investment trust, business trust or other
trust, custodian, nominee or any other individual or entity in its own
or any representative capacity.

S 309-b. Uniform forms of certificates of acknowledgement or proof
without this state. 1. The certificate of an acknowledgement, without
this state, of a conveyance or other instrument with respect to real
property situate in this state, by a person, may conform substantially
with the following form, the blanks being properly filled:
State, District of Columbia, Territory, Possession, or Foreign Country
) ss.:
On the _______ day of __________ in the year _______ before me, the
undersigned, personally appeared ______________, personally known to me
or proved to me on the basis of satisfactory evidence to be the
individual(s) whose name(s) is (are) subscribed to the within instrument
and acknowledged to me that he/she/they executed the same in
his/her/their capacity(ies), and that by his/her/their signature(s) on
the instrument, the individual(s), or the person upon behalf of which
the individual(s) acted, executed the instrument.
(Signature and office of individual taking acknowledgement.)
2. The certificate for a proof of execution by a subscribing witness,
without this state, of a conveyance or other instrument made by any
person in respect to real property situate in this state, may conform
substantially with the following form, the blanks being properly filled:
State, District of Columbia, Territory, Possession, or Foreign Country
)ss.:
On the _______ day of ________ in the year ________ before me, the
undersigned, personally appeared ________________, the subscribing
witness to the foregoing instrument, with whom I am personally
acquainted, who, being by me duly sworn, did depose and say that he/she
resides in _____________________ (if the place of residence is in a
city, include the street and street number, if any, thereof); that
he/she knows _____________ to be the individual described in and who
executed the foregoing instrument; that said subscribing witness was
present and saw said _____________ execute the same; and that said
witness at the same time subscribed his/her name as a witness thereto.
(Signature and office of individual taking proof.)
3. No provision of this section shall be construed to:
(a) modify the choice of laws afforded by sections two hundred
ninety-nine-a and three hundred one-a of this article pursuant to which
an acknowledgement or proof may be taken;
(b) modify any requirement of section three hundred seven of this
article;
(c) modify any requirement for a seal imposed by subdivision one of
section three hundred eight of this article;
(d) modify any requirement concerning a certificate of authentication
imposed by section three hundred eight, three hundred eleven, three
hundred twelve, three hundred fourteen, or three hundred eighteen of
this article; or
(e) modify any requirement imposed by any provision of this article
when the certificate of acknowledgment or proof purports to be taken in
the manner prescribed by the laws of another state, the District of
Columbia, territory, possession, or foreign country.
4. A certificate of an acknowledgement or proof taken under section
three hundred of this article shall include the additional information
required by that section.
5. For the purposes of this section, the term "person" means a person
as defined in subdivision four of section three hundred nine-a of this
article.
6. The inclusion within the body (other than the jurat) of a
certificate of acknowledgment or proof made under this section of the
city or other political subdivision and the state or country or other
place the acknowledgment was taken shall be deemed a non-substantial
variance from the form of a certificate authorized by this section.

S 310. Authentication of acknowledgments and proofs made within the
state. 1. When a certificate of acknowledgment or proof is made, within
this state, by a commissioner of deeds, a justice of the peace, town
councilman, village police justice, or a judge of any court of inferior
local jurisdiction, such certificate does not entitle the conveyance so
acknowledged or proved to be read in evidence or recorded in any county
of this state except a county in which the officer making such
certificate is authorized to act at the time of making the same, unless
such certificate is authenticated by a certificate of the clerk of such
county; provided, however, that all certificates of acknowlledgment or
proof, made by a commissioner of deeds of the city of New York residing
in any part therein, shall be authenticated by the clerk of any county
within said city, in whose office such commissioner of deeds shall have
filed a certificate under the hand and seal of the city clerk of said
city, showing the appointment and term of office of such commissioner;
and no other certificates shall be required from any other officer to
entitle such conveyance to be read in evidence or recorded in any county
of this state.
2. Except as provided in this section, no certificate of
authentication shall be required to entitle a conveyance to be read in
evidence or recorded in this state when acknowledged or proved before
any officer designated in section two hundred ninety-eight of this
article to take such acknowledgment or proof, nor shall such
authentication be required for recording in the office of the city
register of the city of New York of such acknowledgment or proof by a
commissioner of deeds of the city of New York.

S 311. Authentication of acknowledgments and proofs made without the
state. 1. When a certificate of acknowledgment or proof is made, either
within or without the United States, by a commissioner of deeds
appointed pursuant to the laws of this state to take acknowledgments or
proofs without this state, the conveyance so acknowledged or proved is
not entitled to be read in evidence or recorded in this state, except as
provided in subdivision five of section one hundred eight of the
executive law, unless such certificate is authenticated by the
certificate of the secretary of state of the state of New York.
2. When a certificate of acknowledgment or proof is made by a notary
public in a foreign country other than Canada, the conveyance so
acknowledged or proved is not entitled to be read in evidence or
recorded in this state unless such certificate is authenticated (a) by
the certificate of the clerk or other certifying officer of a court in
the district in which such acknowledgment or proof was made, under the
seal of such court, or (b) by the certificate of the clerk, register,
recorder, or other recording officer of the district in which such
acknowledgment or proof was made, or (c) by the certificate of the
officer having charge of the official records of the appointment of such
notary, or having a record of the signature of such notary, or (d) by
the certificate of a consular officer of the United States resident in
such country.
3. When a certificate of acknowledgment or proof, made by the mayor or
other chief civil officer of a city or other political subdivision, is
not under the seal of such city or other political subdivision, the
conveyance so acknowledged or proved is not entitled to be read in
evidence or recorded in this state unless such certificate is
authenticated by the certificate of the clerk of such city or other
political subdivision, or by the certificate of a consular officer of
the United States resident in the country where the acknowledgment or
proof was made.
4. When a certificate of acknowledgment or proof is made pursuant to
the provisions of subdivision five of section two hundred ninety-nine or
of subdivision seven of section three hundred one of this chapter by an
officer or person not elsewhere in either of said sections specifically
designated to take acknowledgments or proofs, the conveyance so
acknowledged or proved is not entitled to be read in evidence or
recorded within this state unless such certificate is authenticated (a)
by the certificate of the secretary of state of a state, or of the
secretary of a territory, of the United States, or (b) by the
certificate of any officer designated in subdivision three of this
section to authenticate certificates of acknowledgment or proof, or (c)
by the certificate of any officer designated in clauses (a) or (b) of
subdivision two of this section to authenticate certificates of
acknowledgment or proof, or (d) by the certificate of the officer having
charge of the official records showing that the person taking the
acknowledgment or proof is such officer as he purports to be, or having
a record of the signature of such person.
5. Except as provided in this section, no certificate of
authentication shall be required to entitle a conveyance to be read in
evidence or recorded in this state when acknowledged or proved before
any officer designated in section two hundred ninety-nine or in section
three hundred one of this chapter to take such acknowledgment or proof.

S 312. Contents of certificate of authentication. 1. An officer
authenticating a certificate of acknowledgment or proof must subjoin or
attach to the original certificate a certificate under his hand.
2. When the certificate of acknowledgment or proof is made by a notary
public, without the state but within the United States or within any
territory, possession, or dependency of the United States, or within any
place over which the United States, at the time when such acknowledgment
or proof is taken, has or exercises jurisdiction, sovereignty, control,
or a protectorate, the certificate of authentication must state in
substance that, at the time when such original certificate purports to
have been made, the person whose name is subscribed to the certificate
was such officer as he is therein represented to be.
In every other case the certificate of authentication must state in
substance (a) that, at the time when such original certificate purports
to have been made, the person whose name is subscribed to the original
certificate was such officer as he is therein represented to be; (b)
that the authenticating officer is acquainted with the handwriting of
the officer making the original certificate, or has compared the
signature of such officer upon the original certificate with a specimen
of his signature filed or deposited in the office of such authenticating
officer, or recorded, filed, or deposited, pursuant to law, in any other
place, and believes the signature upon the original certificate is
genuine; and (c), if the original certificate is required to be under
seal, that the authenticating officer has compared the impression of the
seal affixed thereto with a specimen impression thereof filed or
deposited in his office, or recorded, filed, or deposited, pursuant to
law, in any other place, and believes the impression of the seal upon
the original certificate is genuine.
3. When such original certificate is made pursuant to subdivision five
of section two hundred ninety-nine of this chapter, such certificate of
authentication must also specify that the person making such original
certificate, at the time when it purports to have been made, was
authorized, by the laws of the state, District of Columbia, territory,
possession, dependency, or other place where the acknowledgment or proof
was made, to take the acknowledgment or proof of deeds to be recorded
therein.
4. When such original certificate is made pursuant to subdivision
seven of section three hundred one of this chapter, such certificate of
authentication must also specify that the person making such original
certificate, at the time when it purports to have been made, was
authorized, by the laws of the country where the acknowledgment or proof
was made, to take acknowledgments of conveyances of real estate or to
administer oaths in proof of the execution thereof.

S 313. Notary public. The term "notary public, " as used in sections
two hundred ninety-nine, three hundred one, three hundred eight, and
three hundred eleven, of this chapter, includes any person appointed to
perform notarial functions.

S 313-a. Deputies. When any officer, designated by the provisions of
this article to take acknowledgments or proofs of conveyances of real
estate to be read in evidence or recorded in this state, or to
authenticate certificates of such acknowledgment or proof, is authorized
by law to appoint a deputy, or when such officer has by law a deputy,
such deputy may take such acknowledgments or proofs, or may authenticate
such certificates.

S 314. Recording of conveyances acknowledged or proved without the
state, when parties and certifying officer are dead. When the execution
of a conveyance of real property within this state is acknowledged or
proved according to the laws of any other state of the United States,
and a certificate of the acknowledgment or proof signed by the officer
taking it is annexed to or indorsed upon the instrument, if such officer
and the grantor or mortgagor be dead and the death of all of them be
proved by affidavit, sworn to in such state before an officer authorized
by its laws to administer an oath therein, the conveyance, with the
affidavit or affidavits annexed thereto, on being authenticated as
required by this section, may be read in evidence and recorded in the
same manner, and with like effect, as if the conveyance was acknowledged
or proved and certified as required by the laws of this state. To
entitle such conveyance and affidavits to be read in evidence, or
recorded, a certificate of the clerk, recorder, register or prothonotary
of the county in which the deceased officer resided, authenticating his
signature, and also certifying that the conveyance is acknowledged or
proved in all respects, as required by the laws of such state, must be
annexed to the original certificate; and a like certificate of such
clerk, recorder, register or prothonotary, authenticating the signature
of the officer, before whom the affidavits proving the deaths were
taken, must be annexed to such affidavits. The affidavits on being
recorded, are presumptive evidence of the matters of fact, required to
be stated therein.

S 314-a. Proof when witnesses are dead. When the witnesses to a
conveyance, authorized to be recorded, are dead, its execution may be
proved before any officer authorized to take within the state the
acknowledgment and proof of conveyances, other than a commissioner of
deeds, a notary public, or a justice of the peace. The proof of the
execution must be made by satisfactory evidence of the death of all the
witnesses thereto, and of the handwriting of such witnesses, or any one
of them, and of the grantor, which evidence, with the name and residence
of each witness examined, must be set forth by the officer taking the
same, in his certificate of proof. A conveyance so proved, and
certified, may be recorded in the proper office, if the original
conveyance be at the same time deposited in the same office, there to
remain for the inspection of all persons desiring to examine the same.
If the conveyance affects real property in two or more counties, a
certified copy of the conveyance, with the proof and certificates, may
be recorded in each of such counties. Such recording and deposit are
constructive notice of the execution of such conveyance to all
purchasers of the same real property, or any part thereof, from the same
vendor, his heirs or assigns, subsequent to such recording, but do not
entitle the conveyance or the record thereof, or a transcript of the
record, to be read in evidence.

S 315. Recording books. Different sets of books must be provided by
the recording officer of each county, for the recording of deeds and
mortgages; in one of which sets he must record all conveyances and other
instruments absolute in their terms, which are not intended as mortgages
or securities in the nature of mortgages, and all executory contracts
for the sale, purchase or exchange of real property, or memoranda
thereof, and all instruments canceling or extending such contracts,
which conveyances, contracts or instruments are delivered to him,
pursuant to law, to be so recorded, and all forms pertaining to
commitments of land to continued agricultural production required to be
so recorded pursuant to section three hundred six of the agriculture and
markets law; and in the other set, such mortgages and securities, and
assignments of rent, delivered to him; excepting that if the recording
is by microphotography or other photographic process, the recording
officer shall not be required to maintain books for such records, but
shall provide such filing equipment as he may deem appropriate. The
recording officer may, in his discretion, record in consecutive order
the instruments received by him, and shall not be required to segregate
mortgages from deeds or other classes of instruments.

S 316. Indexes. Each recording officer must provide, at the expense of
his county, proper books for making general indexes of instruments
recorded in his office, and must form indexes therein, so as to afford
correct and easy reference to the records in his office. There must be
one set of indexes for mortgages or securities in the nature of
mortgages and assignments of rent; and another set for conveyances and
other instruments not intended as such mortgages or securities, and
executory contracts for sale, purchase or exchange of real property, or
memoranda thereof, and instruments canceling or extending such
contracts. Each set must contain two lists in alphabetical order, one
consisting of the names of the grantors or mortgagors and assignors,
followed by the names of their grantees, mortgagees or assignees, and
the other list consisting of the names of the grantees or mortgagees and
assignees, followed by the names of their grantors, mortgagors, or
assignors, with proper blanks in each class of names, for subsequent
entries, which entries must be made as instruments are delivered for
record. This section, so far as relates to the preparation of new
indexes, shall not apply to a county where the recording officer now has
general numerical indexes.
A recording officer who records a conveyance of real property or
assignment of rent, sold by virtue of an execution, or by a sheriff,
referee or other person, pursuant to a judgment, the granting clause
whereof states whose right, title or interest was sold, must insert in
the proper index, under the head, "grantors" or "assignors", the name of
the officer executing the conveyance, and of each person whose right,
title or interest is so stated to have been sold.
Such indexes shall form a part of the record of each instrument
hereafter recorded. A county clerk may adopt a new indexing system
utilizing electro-mechanical, electronic or any other method he deems
suitable for maintaining the indexes.

S 316-a. Indexing and reindexing conveyances, mortgages and other
instruments. 1. Every instrument affecting real estate or chattels real,
situated in the county of Suffolk, which shall be, or which shall have
been recorded in the office of the clerk of said county on and after the
first day of January, nineteen hundred fifty-one, shall be recorded and
indexed pursuant to the provisions of this act.
2. The clerk of the county of Suffolk is hereby directed and required,
immediately upon the passage of this act, to cause to be prepared one or
more books for each town in the said county of Suffolk for the indexing
therein, under the proper town so designated, of all instruments now
required by law to be recorded in the books of conveyances. And said
clerk shall also cause to be prepared one or more books for each of said
towns in said county for the indexing therein, under the proper town so
designated, of all instruments now required by law to be recorded in the
books of mortgages. Said indexes shall be deposited in the office of
said clerk. They shall be prepared so as to contain the date of
recording of each instrument, the names of the parties to each
instrument and the liber and page of the record thereof and shall be
substantially the forms of the schedules hereto annexed, designated
respectively as schedule A, schedule B, schedule C, schedule D, which
schedules shall be deemed and taken to be a part of this act. Said books
shall be entitled "town indexes of conveyances and mortgages"
respectively, and shall indicate the towns to which they respectively
relate.
3. It shall be the duty of the said clerk to provide and keep in his
office, besides said town indexes, a "daily index, or tickler of
conveyances," and a "daily index, or tickler of mortgages," together
with books or records in which shall be recorded at length conveyances
and mortgages recorded in his office, each of which shall be endorsed in
its proper liber number.
4. Every instrument presented to said clerk for record, and requiring
to be indexed under this act after the date when this act shall go into
operation, in order to entitle the same to be recorded, shall have
included therein, in the description of the premises, a designation of
the town in said county in which the land affected by the instrument
lies, and if it lies in two or more towns of said county the name of
each and every town in which the land affected by the instrument is
situated. Every assignment of a mortgage, and every agreement
respecting a mortgage, to entitle the same to be recorded, shall have
included therein a designation of the town in said county in which the
land lies which is affected by the mortgage to which such assignment or
agreement relates, and if such land lies in two or more towns of said
county the name of each and every town in which the land affected by the
mortgage to which such assignment or agreement relates. And a record of
the instrument shall not be effectual by way of notice to bona fide
purchasers or encumbrancers in respect to any land situated in any town
of said county not so designated except as hereinafter provided.
5. Whenever any instrument affecting or relating to land in said
county entitled to be recorded and required to be indexed under the
provisions of this act shall be presented to the said clerk for record,
he shall forthwith endorse thereupon the date, hour and minute of
acceptance for recording by him, and enter in the proper index or
tickler the name of every party executing said instrument, the date of
record thereof and the name of every town designated as aforesaid for
the indexing of such instrument and as soon as practicable thereafter
shall cause the said instrument to be indexed in the proper book or
books of the town indexes under the proper town designated in which such
property is situated.
6. The entries made in said indexes in conformity with the
requirements of this act shall for the purpose of notice be deemed and
taken to be a part of the record of the instrument to which such entries
respectively refer and shall be notice to such subsequent purchasers or
encumbrancers to the same extent and with the like effect as the
recording of such instruments in the office of said clerk now is or may
be notice.
7. For the purposes of indexing under the provisions of this act all
conveyances, mortgages, or other instruments recorded and indexed or
reindexed under the provisions of this act shall be so indexed or
reindexed under the proper town book of index indicated in the
description hereinbefore provided for, and in an order and sequence
known as the "first letter of the last name and first letter of the
first named method".
The corporate names shall be indexed under the first letter of the
first substantive word of the name of the corporation, or in the event
of a corporation using the proper name of an individual, such as John
Smith, Inc., such index shall be under Smith, John, Inc., as well as
John Smith, Inc.
8. In cases where any instrument shall have been recorded without such
designation as required by this act, or with erroneous designation, the
said clerk shall, on presentation of proper proof thereof, enter such
instrument in the proper index of the proper town, the designation of
which shall have been erroneously stated or omitted, and shall at the
same time make a note of such entry and the date thereof, in every place
in which such instrument may have been erroneously indexed, opposite the
entry thereof, and also upon the record of the instrument and upon the
instrument itself, if the same be in his possession or produced to him
for the purpose, and the record of such instrument shall be constructive
notice as to the property in any town not duly designated at the time of
such record, only from the time when the same shall be properly indexed.
9. No entry in any book or index in said clerk`s office shall be
erased so as to be illegible, but in case of any correction, the same
shall be made without destroying the original by drawing a line through
such original entry, and in such cases the date of such correction,
attested by the signature of the clerk or his deputy, shall be entered
upon the same page on which such correction is made, on the margin
opposite such correction. In the event the indexes are in a microfilm
the correction shall be made by a hole being punched in the margin
adjacent to the corrected entry. No initials being required in this
event.
10. Any person presenting to said clerk an instrument for record,
under this act, shall pay to said clerk, in addition to the fees now
required by law for recording like instruments, the further sum of one
dollar for each additional town beyond one under which said instrument
is required to be indexed, and the sum of one dollar for each town shall
be payable whenever an instrument already recorded is required to be
reindexed under section eight.
11. The provisions of this act shall not apply to the indexing of
general assignments, wills, powers of attorney, executory contracts for
sale or purchase of land or satisfaction of mortgages, but such
instruments shall be filed or recorded as now required by law and when
recorded they shall be indexed in separate alphabetical indexes.
12. For the purpose of carrying out the various provisions of this act
the clerk may employ such necessary clerical help as may in his judgment
be required.
13. The board of supervisors of said county is hereby authorized and
directed to appropriate, for the purpose of carrying out the provisions
of this act, all such sums of money as may be necessary therefor.
14. The records and indexes herein provided to be made under the
authority of this act shall be deposited in the office of the clerk of
said county for public use and the same shall be public records.
15. To the extent that the provisions herein are inconsistent with any
general or special law, this act shall be controlling.
16. This act shall be deemed and taken to be a public and not a
private act.
17. The county clerk may adpot a new indexing system utilizing
electro-mechanical, electronic, or any other method he deems suitable
for maintaining the indexes. Such system shall be approved by the
county legislature before being implemented.

S 316-b. Inactive hazardous waste disposal site registry index. 1. On
and after July first, nineteen hundred ninety-three, each recording
officer must provide, at the expense of his county, proper books for
making an index of present owners of inactive hazardous waste disposal
sites contained in the registry required by section 27-1305 of the
environmental conservation law. The index shall contain an alphabetical
listing of all owners listed in such annual report completed by the
department of environmental conservation, together with a reference, for
each present owner, to the page and year of the report where information
regarding the inactive hazardous waste site may be located. The index
shall also contain the tax map parcel number or the section, block and
lot number of the site.
2. (a) No recording officer shall be liable for the failure to comply
with the provisions of this section prior to July first, nineteen
hundred ninety-three.
(b) Any entries, index or other listing contained in the books
required to be provided by this section prior to July first, nineteen
hundred ninety-three shall be null, void and of no effect, nor shall
such entries, index or listing be considered to provide actual or
constructive notice of inactive hazardous waste disposal sites for any
purpose.
3. Each recording officer shall record and index such instruments as
may be required to be recorded pursuant to title thirteen or fourteen of
article twenty-seven of the environmental conservation law, or title
five of article fifty-six of the environmental conservation law, or any
regulation promulgated pursuant thereto, or any order or agreement
entered into under authority thereof or of any such regulations.

S 317. Order of recording. Every instrument, entitled to be recorded,
must be recorded by the recording officer in the order and as of the
time of its delivery to him therefor, and is considered recorded from
the time of such delivery.

S 318. Certificate to be recorded. The certificate of the
acknowledgment or proof of the execution of an instrument, and the
certificate authenticating the signature or seal of the officer so
certifying, or both, if required, must be recorded together with the
instrument so acknowledged or proved; otherwise neither the record of
the instrument nor a transcript thereof can be read in evidence.

S 319. Time of recording. The recording officer must make an entry in
the record, immediately after the copy of every instrument recorded by
him, stating the hour, day, month and year, when it was recorded, and
must endorse upon every such instrument a certificate, stating the time
as aforesaid, when, and the book and page where, the same was recorded.
If the recording is by microphotography or other photographic process,
the recording officer must endorse on the instrument the hour, day,
month and year when it was recorded, and the serial number or such other
designation as will permit easy reference to the record of such
instrument, and he must, in addition, place thereon a certificate
stating that the instrument has been recorded in deeds or mortgages as
the case may be.

S 320. Certain deeds deemed mortgages. A deed conveying real property,
which, by any other written instrument, appears to be intended only as a
security in the nature of a mortgage, although an absolute conveyance in
terms, must be considered a mortgage; and the person for whose benefit
such deed is made, derives no advantage from the recording thereof,
unless every writing, operating as a defeasance of the same, or
explanatory of its being desired to have the effect only of a mortgage,
or conditional deed, is also recorded therewith, and at the same time.

S 321. Recording discharge of mortgage. 1. The recording officer shall
mark on the record of a mortgage the word "discharged" when there is
presented to him a certificate or certificates signed as hereinafter
provided, and acknowledged or proved and certified in like manner as to
entitle a conveyance to be recorded, specifying that the mortgage has
been paid or otherwise satisfied and discharged.
(a) When it does not appear from the record that any interest in the
mortgage has been assigned, the discharge shall be signed by the
mortgagee or by his personal representative.
(b) When it appears from the record that the mortgage has been
assigned, whether or not the assignment was made as collateral security,
the discharge shall be signed by the person who appears from the record
to be the last assignee thereof or by his personal representative.
(c) When the mortgage or an assignment thereof names two or more
persons as mortgagees or assignees, the discharge shall be signed by the
person or persons designated by the mortgage or assignment to receive
payment of the mortgage debt or to give full acquittance and discharge
therefor. When no such person or persons are designated by the mortgage
or assignment, the certificate of discharge shall be signed by all of
the persons named, in the mortgage or assignment, as mortgagees or
assignees, as the case may be, or by their personal representatives, if
the mortgage or assignment (i) specifies their respective interest in
terms of a sum of money, or in terms of a fraction or percentage, or
(ii) states that such persons shall share equally in, or shall have
equal shares in the mortgage, or (iii) describes such persons as tenants
in common of the mortgage. When it appears from the record that the
mortgage is held by trustees, the certificate of discharge shall be
signed by a majority of such trustees or of the survivors of them or by
the survivors or survivor of them, unless the instrument creating the
trust provides otherwise. Except as required above, the discharge may be
signed by any one of the persons named in the mortgage or assignment, as
mortgagees or assignees, as the case may be, or by the personal
representative of the last survivor of them. If the mortgage or
assignment states that the persons named therein as mortgagees or
assignees shall hold the mortgage jointly, or describes such persons as
joint tenants or tenants by the entirety of the mortgage, or expressly
creates a right of survivorship among them, the discharge may be signed
by any one of such persons or by the personal representative of the last
survivor of them notwithstanding that the mortgage or assignment
specifies their respective interests in the mortgage or states that they
shall share equally or have equal shares therein.
(d) When the mortgage has been partially assigned, the certificate of
discharge shall be signed by all of the persons, or their personal
representatives, who in the aggregate are the holders of all portions of
the mortgage, including each partial assignee, and the assignor in case
any portion of the mortgage has not been assigned; provided, however,
that if any partial assignment names two or more persons as assignees,
the person or persons who may sign the certificate discharging such
partial interest shall be determined in accordance with the provisions
of paragraph (c) of this subdivision.
(e) Whenever two or more persons are required to execute a certificate
of discharge as provided in this subdivision, there may be presented in
lieu of such certificate, separately executed certificates of discharge
as to the respective interests of each in the mortgage so that together
the several certificates purport to discharge the entire mortgage.
(f) In place of any of the persons specified in paragraphs (a), (b),
(c) or (d) of this subdivision, a certificate of discharge of the
mortgage or of any interest therein may be signed (i) by an agent who
has been authorized by any such person to demand or receive payment or
to give a certificate of discharge of the mortgage by a power of
attorney, provided such power of attorney is of record in the office
where the mortgage is recorded, and no instrument of revocation has been
recorded; or (ii) by any person in whom title to such mortgage or to
such interest, or authority to act on behalf of or in exercise of the
right or power of the holder of such mortgage or of such interest is
vested, in a fiduciary capacity, by virtue of an order or decree of a
court having jurisdiction thereof, including, but not limited to, the
guardian of a minor, the committee of an incompetent person, or the
conservator of a conservatee, whether domestic or foreign, and a
receiver in bankruptcy or trustee in bankruptcy. A certificate executed
by any person specified in clause (ii) of this paragraph shall recite
the name of the court and the venue of the proceedings in which his
appointment was made, or the order or decree vesting him with such title
or authority was entered.
(g) If the mortgage is stated in the certificate of discharge to have
been taken by the alien property custodian under and pursuant to the
trading with the enemy act adopted by the United States congress, and
approved October sixth, nineteen hundred sixteen, or any act amendatory
thereof, or supplemental thereto, such certificate may be executed by
such alien property custodian or such person as the president may
appoint to give full acquittance and discharge for money or property
belonging to an enemy or ally of an enemy which may be conveyed,
assigned, delivered or transferred to said alien property custodian,
with like effect as if the same had been executed by the mortgagee, his
personal representative or assignee. Such certificate may be recorded,
and such certificate, the record thereof and a certified copy of such
record may be introduced in evidence in all courts of this state.
2. (a) The recording officer shall record and file such certificate or
certificates together with the certificates of acknowledgment or proof,
and shall note on the record of the mortgage the book and page
containing such record of such certificate or certificates or the serial
number of such record in the minute of the discharge of such mortgage,
made by the officer upon the record thereof. The provisions of this
paragraph shall not apply to the county of Suffolk, if the block method
of index is in use, or a separate index of satisfactions recorded is
maintained.
(b) The recording officer shall also record every other instrument
relating to a mortgage which is presented to him, acknowledged or proved
in like manner as to entitle a conveyance to be recorded, including
certificates purporting to discharge a mortgage or an interest therein
which are signed by persons other than those specified in the first
subdivision of this section, and also including, but not limited to,
assignments, releases, partial discharges, reductions, estoppel
certificates, extensions, discharges of partial interest and partial
discharges of partial interest, regardless by whom any such instrument
has been executed. When any such instrument has been recorded, the
recording officer, except in counties where the block method of indexing
is in use, or in Suffolk county, if a separate index of said instruments
is maintained, shall enter a minute upon the record of the mortgage to
which such instrument relates, indicating the nature of such instrument
and the book and page where it has been recorded or the serial number of
such record.
3. Every certificate presented to the recording officer shall be
executed and acknowledged or proved in like manner as to entitle a
conveyance to be recorded. If the mortgage has been assigned, in whole
or in part, the certificate shall set forth the date of each assignment
in the chain of title of the person or persons signing the certificate,
the names of the assignor and assignee, the interest assigned, and, if
the assignment has been recorded, the book and page where it has been
recorded or the serial number of such record; or if the assignment is
being recorded simultaneously with the certificate of discharge, the
certificate of discharge shall so state. If the mortgage has not been
assigned of record, the certificate shall so state.
No certificate presented to the recording officer shall purport to
discharge more than one mortgage, except that one certificate may
purport to discharge two or more mortgages where the certificate states
that one of such mortgages corrects, perfects or modifies the other
mortgage or mortgages, or spreads the lien of the other mortgage or
mortgages over the property subject to the lien of such mortgage, or
consolidates the lien of the other mortgage or mortgages with the lien
of such mortgage to constitute a single lien, or where the certificate
states that the liens of the mortgages which the certificate purports to
discharge have been so spread or so consolidated by a separate
instrument and such instrument has been recorded; provided that in such
case the certificate of discharge shall identify and describe each
mortgage which it purports to discharge, in a separate paragraph, in the
same manner and with the same particularity, and setting forth the same
information with respect to assignments thereof, as would be required
for a separate certificate discharging that mortgage, and shall also
state, in a separate paragraph for each instrument, the date of any such
separate instrument by which the liens of the mortgages have been spread
or consolidated, the names of the parties thereto, and the book and page
where it has been recorded or the serial number of such record. In any
such case, except where otherwise expressly provided by law, the fee or
fees which the recording officer is entitled to receive for filing and
entering a certificate of discharge of a mortgage and examining
assignments of such mortgage shall be payable with respect to each
mortgage which the certificate purports to discharge, to the same extent
as if a separate certificate of discharge had been filed for such
mortgage.
4. After the record of the mortgage has been marked with the word
"discharged, " the recording officer shall make and deliver to any
person tendering the lawful fees therefor, his certificate setting forth
the names of the mortgagor and the mortgagee, the book and page at
which, the date when such mortgage was recorded, and the date on which
the record of such mortgage was so marked, except in a county where
recording is done by microphotography or photostating in the manner
permitted by law, in which case, after microphotography or photostating,
such certificate of discharge and the certificates of its acknowledgment
or proof shall, in lieu of filing as provided in paragraph (a) of
subdivision two of this section, be returned to the party leaving same
for record.
5. The term "personal representative" as used in this section shall
include the following:
(a) An executor, administrator or voluntary administrator or one of
two or more executors, administrators or voluntary administrators,
whether domestic or foreign, including the public administrator, and an
ancillary administrator appointed in this state. A certificate executed
by any such personal representative shall recite the name of the court
and the venue of the proceedings in which his letters testamentary or of
administration were issued.
(b) All of the distributees of a person dying intestate for whom no
administrator shall have been appointed, provided that two years shall
have elapsed since the date of death of such intestate. A certificate
executed by such distributees shall recite the date of death of the
intestate, his place of residence at the time of death, the fact that he
died intestate, that no administrator has been appointed and that they
constitute all the distributees of the intestate.
6. The provisions of this section authorizing the recording officer to
mark on the record of a mortgage the word "discharged" shall not be
deemed to enlarge, diminish or alter the legal effect which a
certificate executed by any person or persons, or any payment made by
the mortgagor or other transaction with respect to the mortgage or the
mortgage debt, would otherwise have upon the rights of the mortgagor or
of any person claiming a right or interest in the mortgage, the mortgage
debt or the property subject to the mortgage.
7. In a county in which recording is accomplished by microfilm process
and in which a block index of mortgages is also maintained it will not
be necessary to mark the record of the mortgage "discharged", but it
will be deemed sufficient compliance with this section if there is
entered upon the block index of such mortgage the date of filing and the
serial number of the certificate effecting the discharge.
7-a. If in any county, recording is accomplished by microfilm process
and a separate index for satisfactions recorded is maintained or in
which a block index of mortgages is also maintained it will not be
necessary to mark the record of the mortgage "discharged", but it will
be deemed sufficient compliance with this section if there is entered
upon the index of such mortgage the date of filing and the serial number
of the certificate effecting the discharge.
8. Certificates of discharge of mortgage and certificates of their
acknowledgment or proof heretofore or hereafter recorded and filed, may
be returned personally or by mail to the party leaving same for record
or destroyed after microfilming or photostating where proper indices are
maintained.

S 321-a. Recording discharge of rent assignment. An assignment of rent
to accrue from real property, heretofore recorded, or hereafter recorded
pursuant to section two hundred ninety-four-a of this chapter, must be
discharged upon the record thereof, by the recording officer, upon
presentation to him of a certificate signed by the assignee, or by his
personal representative or his assignee, and acknowledged or proved and
certified in like manner to entitle a conveyance to be recorded,
specifying that the obligation secured by the assignment of rent has
been satisfied or discharged, or that the assignment of rent is
canceled. When so signed and acknowledged or proved and certified, such
certificate may be recorded, and such certificate, the record thereof,
and a certified copy of such record may be introduced in evidence in all
courts of this state. The certificate of discharge, and the certificates
of its acknowledgment or proof, must be recorded and filed; and a
reference must be made to the book and page containing such record in
the minute of the discharge of such assignment of rent, made by the
officer upon the record thereof. After such discharge has been recorded
the recording officer shall make and deliver to the person in whose
interest such discharge of assignment of rent is executed and recorded,
his certificate setting forth the names of the assignor and assignee,
the liber and page at which, the time when such assignment of rent was
recorded, and the date on which said assignment of rent was satisfied
and discharged.

S 324. Effect of recording assignment of mortgage. The recording of an
assignment of a mortgage is not in itself a notice of such assignment to
a mortgagor, his heirs or personal representatives, or to an owner of
the mortgaged premises where such assignment is recorded subsequent to
the recording of the conveyance of such premises to such owner, so as to
invalidate a payment made by either of them to the mortgagee or to a
prior assignee of the mortgage.

S 325. Recording of conveyances made by treasurer of Connecticut. A
conveyance of real property, executed at any time since the tenth day of
March, eighteen hundred and twenty-five, by the treasurer of the state
of Connecticut, acknowledged by him before the secretary of state of
such state, and the acknowledgment of which is certified by such
secretary of state under the seal of such state, in the manner required
for the acknowledgment and certification of a conveyance within this
state, may be recorded in the proper office within this state, without
further proof thereof.

S 326. Revocation to be recorded. A power of attorney or other
instrument, recorded pursuant to this article, is not deemed revoked by
any act of the party by whom it was executed, unless the instrument
containing such revocation is also recorded in the same office in which
the instrument containing the power was recorded.

S 327. Penalty for using long forms of covenants. The recording
officer of any county may charge for the recording of an instrument
containing any of the covenants mentioned in section two hundred and
fifty-three and two hundred and fifty-four of this chapter, at large,
instead of the short forms thereof, in said sections contained, the sum
of five dollars in addition to the fees chargeable by law for such
recording.

S 328. Certain acts not affected. Nothing contained in this article
repeals or affects any act providing for recording and indexing
instruments affecting real property in the city of New York, according
to city blocks or other limited areas.

S 329. Actions to have certain instruments canceled of record. An
owner of real property or of any undivided part thereof or interest
therein or an owner of rent to accrue from a tenancy or subtenancy
thereof, may maintain an action to have any recorded instrument in
writing relating to such real property or interest therein, other than
those required by law to be recorded, or any recorded assignment of rent
to accrue from a tenancy or subtenancy of such property or interest
therein declared void or invalid, or to have the same canceled of record
as to said real property, or his undivided part thereof or interest
therein, or as to the rent to accrue therefrom belonging to him.

S 330. Officers guilty of malfeasance liable for damages. An officer
authorized to take the acknowledgment or proof of a conveyance or other
instrument, or to certify such proof or acknowledgment, or to record the
same, who is guilty of malfeasance or fraudulent practice in the
execution of any duty prescribed by law in relation thereto, is liable
in damages to the person injured.

S 331. Laws and decrees of foreign countries appointing agents and
attorneys and recording of the same. A copy of a law of a foreign
country or of a decree of the executive power of such a country,
appointing an agent or attorney with power to execute and deliver in the
name or on behalf of such foreign country, any instrument in writing
granting, assigning, surrendering or in any manner affecting any estate
or interest of such government in real property within this state, or
assigning or discharging any lien or claim of such government upon real
property within this state, or of a law or decree revoking such an
appointment, if in English, or a translation into English of any such
law or decree, if the original thereof be in a language other than
English, when certified and recorded as hereinafter provided, shall be
presumptive evidence of the authority of such agent or attorney.
Certification of such copy or translation shall be made under the great
seal of such foreign country and shall be to the effect that the same is
a true copy or translation of such law or decree. Such copy or
translation of such law or decree, when so certified, may be recorded in
the office of the clerk or register of any county of this state, and
such copy or translation when so certified and recorded, or a certified
copy of the record thereof, shall be received as evidence in any court
of this state. The authority conferred under any instrument so recorded
shall not be deemed revoked as to property situated in any county except
by the recording in such county of a copy or translation of a law or
decree to that effect, duly certified in the manner hereinbefore
provided. Nothing in this section shall in any way affect the right or
power of a foreign country to acquire, hold or convey real property in
this state, or be construed to confer any such right or power.

S 332. The record of certain conveyances validated. 1. The record made
prior to July first, nineteen hundred fifty-five in the office of the
recording officer of any county in this state of any deed, mortgage,
assignment or satisfaction piece of a mortgage, or other conveyance or
power of attorney, otherwise authorized to be recorded therein,
notwithstanding that the certificate of acknowledgment or proof did not
set forth the place of residence of a subscribing witness or of a
corporate officer or director, or did not set it forth with sufficient
particularity, and notwithstanding any other defect in the form of the
certificate of acknowledgment or proof or the failure to append thereto
a certificate as to the authority of the person who took the
acknowledgment or proof, to take the same, or any defect in the form of
such certificate of authority, shall be in all respects as valid and
effectual as though such certificate of acknowledgment or proof or
certificate of authority had been in proper form or such certificate of
authority had been appended to such instrument. Provided only that such
person was duly authorized at the time of taking the proof or
acknowledgment to take the same in the county where the instrument is
recorded or in the place, whether within or without the United States,
where the same was taken.
2. All acknowledgments or proofs of conveyance of real property made
or taken prior to April tenth, nineteen hundred thirty, before a judge,
clerk, deputy clerk or special deputy clerk of a court not of record of
this state are confirmed.
3. All acts of the secretary of state of any state or territory of the
United States in authenticating a certificate of acknowledgment or proof
of a conveyance of real property within the state, performed before
October first, nineteen hundred twenty-five, are hereby confirmed,
provided that the said certificate of authentication is in the form
required by the laws of this state on March twenty-third, nineteen
hundred twenty-six or now required by law.
4. If an instrument is recorded hereafter notwithstanding the omission
from the certificate of acknowledgment or proof of the street and street
number of a subscribing witness or of a corporate officer or director
contrary to the provisions of sections three hundred four, three hundred
nine, three hundred nine-a and three hundred nine-b of this article, the
record of such instrument shall not be invalidated by reason of such
omission nor shall the title founded on such instrument be impaired
thereby.
5. Nothing in this section shall effect any pending action or
proceeding nor the rights of any purchaser in good faith and for a
valuable consideration whose conveyance shall have been duly recorded
before this section as amended shall take effect.

S 332-a. Validation of the record, execution and proof or
acknowledgment of certain other instruments. The record made prior to
the day when this act takes effect in the office of the recording
officer of any county in this state or, the execution and proof or
acknowledgment made prior to the day when this act takes effect, of any
deed, mortgage, assignment or satisfaction piece of a mortgage,
discharge or release of part of mortgaged premises, or other conveyance
or a power of attorney, the acknowledgment of the execution of which by
a corporation was made by an officer thereof, or the execution of which
was proven by a subscribing witness, such acknowledgment or proof having
been taken or made before an officer or person thereto authorized, and
the certificate or certification thereof or therefor being sufficient as
to form in all respects except that it either did not state the place of
residence of such officer of the corporation or of such subscribing
witness or did not state it with sufficient particularity, shall be in
all respects as valid and effectual as though such certificate or
certification had contained a sufficient statement as to such place of
residence; but this section shall not affect any action or proceeding
pending at the time of the taking effect thereof.

S 332-b. The record of certain other conveyances validated. 1. The
record made subsequent to February thirteenth, nineteen hundred forty
and prior to the time this section shall take effect in the office of
the recording officer of any county in this state of any deed, mortgage,
assignment or satisfaction piece of a mortgage, or other conveyance or
power of attorney, otherwise authorized to be recorded therein,
notwithstanding any defect in the form of the certificate of
acknowledgment or proof or the failure to append thereto a certificate
as to the authority of the person who took the acknowledgment or proof,
to take the same, or any defect in the form of such certificate of
authority, shall be in all respects as valid and effectual as though
such certificate of acknowledgment or proof or certificate of authority
had been in proper form or such certificate of authority had been
appended to such instrument. Provided only that such person was duly
authorized at the time of taking the proof or acknowledgment to take the
same in the county where the instrument is recorded or in the place,
whether within or without the United States, where the same was taken.
2. Nothing in this section shall affect any pending action or
proceeding nor the rights of any purchaser in good faith and for a
valuable consideration whose conveyance shall have been duly recorded
before this section shall take effect.

S 333. When conveyances of real property not to be recorded. 1. After
September thirtieth, nineteen hundred and ten, a recording officer shall
not record or accept for record any conveyance of real property executed
subsequent to said September thirtieth, nineteen hundred and ten, unless
the residence of the purchaser and if in a city of over five hundred
thousand inhabitants according to the last federal census the street
number of the residence of the purchaser shall be stated therein and
such residence and street number shall be recorded with the conveyance.
After May first, nineteen hundred and fourteen, a recording officer
shall not record or accept for record any conveyance of real property
executed subsequent to said first day of May, nineteen hundred and
fourteen, if in a city of over two hundred thousand inhabitants
according to the last federal census, unless the street number of the
residence of the purchaser shall be stated therein and such residence
and street number shall be recorded with the conveyance; provided,
however, that this section shall not operate to invalidate any
conveyance of real property, heretofore or hereafter executed, in which
the residence or street number of the purchaser shall not have been
stated, nor affect the record of any such conveyance accepted for record
and recorded, heretofore or hereafter, contrary to the provisions of
this section, nor impair any title founded on such a conveyance or
record. After July first, nineteen hundred thirty-five, a recording
officer of the county of Nassau shall not record or accept for record
any conveyance of real property executed subsequent to said first day of
July, nineteen hundred thirty-five, unless the city or incorporated
village in which such real property is located be stated therein, and if
not located in a city or incorporated village, then the township in
which located shall be stated therein; provided, however, that this
section shall not operate to invalidate any conveyance of real property,
heretofore or hereafter executed, in which the description fails to
designate the city or incorporated village in which the real property is
located, nor affect the record of any such conveyance accepted for
record and recorded, heretofore or hereafter contrary to the provisions
of this section, nor impair any title founded on such a conveyance or
record.
1-a. After September first, nineteen hundred forty, a recording
officer shall not record or accept for record any conveyance of real
property executed subsequent to said first day of September, nineteen
hundred forty, unless the residence of the seller and of the purchaser,
including the street and street number of the residence if any there be,
shall be stated therein and such residences, including street and street
number if any, shall be recorded with the conveyance; provided, however,
that the provisions of this subdivision shall not operate to invalidate
any conveyance of real property, executed subsequent to said first day
of September, nineteen hundred forty, in which the residence, including
street and street number if any, of the seller and of the purchaser
shall not have been stated, nor affect the record contrary to the
provisions of this subdivision, nor impair any title founded on such a
conveyance or record.
1-b. With respect to instruments executed after September first,
nineteen hundred forty-four, the terms seller and purchaser, as used in
this section, shall include any party to a conveyance of real property.
1-c. With respect to instruments executed after September first,
nineteen hundred forty-four, the term conveyance of real property as
used in this section shall include any conveyance as defined in
subdivision three of section two hundred ninety of the real property law
and any instrument entitled to be recorded under section two hundred
ninety-four of the real property law.
1-d. After September first, nineteen hundred fifty-five a recording
officer shall not record or accept for record any deed transferring
title to real property executed subsequent to September first, nineteen
hundred fifty-five, unless the city, town and village in which such real
property is located be stated therein; provided, however, that this
section shall not operate to invalidate any such deed, heretofore or
hereafter executed, in which the description fails to designate the
city, town and village in which the real property is located, nor affect
the record of any such deed accepted for record and recorded, heretofore
or hereafter contrary to the provisions of this section, nor impair any
title founded on such deed or record.
1-e. i. A recording officer shall not record or accept for record any
conveyance of real property affecting land in New York state unless
accompanied by a transfer report form prescribed by the state board of
real property services and a fee of twenty-five dollars pursuant to
subdivision three of this section.
ii. Such transfer report form shall contain information as required by
such board including:
(1) the mailing address of the new owner;
(2) the tax billing address, if different from the owner`s mailing
address;
(3) the appropriate tax map designation, if any;
(4) a statement of the full sales price relating thereto;
(5) a statement whether the parcel is located in an agricultural
district and, if so, whether a disclosure notice has been provided
pursuant to section three hundred thirty-three-c of this article and
section three hundred ten of the agriculture and markets law;
(6) a statement whether the property described in such deed is the
entire parcel owned by the transferor or transferors;
(7) that in the event the parcel conveyed by such deed is a portion of
the parcel owned by the transferor or transferors, a statement whether
the city, town or village in which such property is situated has a
planning board or other entity empowered to approve subdivisions; and
(8) that in the event such planning board or other entity is empowered
to approve subdivisions, a statement whether the parcel conveyed by such
deed is (a) not subject to such subdivision approval or (b) such
subdivision has been approved by the respective city, town or village
planning board or other entity empowered to approve subdivisions.
iii. Such transfer report form shall not constitute part of nor be
retained with the record of conveyance. For the purposes of this
subdivision, the term "tax billing address" means the address designated
by the owner to which tax bills shall be sent, and the term "full sales
price" means the price actually paid or required to be paid for the real
property or interest therein, whether paid or required to be paid by
money, property, or any other thing of value, including the cancellation
or discharge of an indebtedness or obligation, and the amount of any
lien or encumbrance on the real property or interest therein which
existed before the delivery of the deed and which remains thereon after
the delivery of the deed, but excluding the fair market value of any
personal property received by the buyer.
iv. The provisions of this subdivision shall not operate to invalidate
any conveyance of real property where one or more of the items
designated as subparagraphs one through eight of paragraph ii of this
subdivision, have not been reported or which has been erroneously
reported, nor affect the record contrary to the provisions of this
subdivision, nor impair any title founded on such conveyance or record.
Such form shall be certified as to the accuracy of the contents by the
transferor or transferors and the transferee or transferees. Provided,
however, if the conveyance of real property occurs as a result of a
taking by eminent domain, tax foreclosure, or other involuntary
proceeding such form may be certified only by either the condemnor, tax
district, or other party to whom the property has been conveyed, or by
that party`s attorney. Any deed executed and delivered prior to July
first, nineteen hundred ninety-four may nevertheless be recorded in the
office of the county clerk providing there is submitted therewith, and
in place of such form, a separate statement signed by the transferor or
transferors and the transferee or transferees or any person having
sufficient knowledge to sign such form which contains the same
information required by the state board of equalization and assessment
as set forth in subparagraphs one through four of paragraph ii of this
subdivision.
1-f. Each conveyance of real property affecting land in Suffolk county
presented to the recording officer of such county for recording shall,
in addition to complying with the requirements of subdivision one-e of
this section, contain in the body thereof or have endorsed thereon the
map designation or designations of the property maps of the real
property tax service agency of such county. The recording officer of
such county shall not record or accept for record, any conveyance of
real property affecting land in such county unless said instrument of
conveyance is accompanied by a three dollar certification fee for each
parcel of real property conveyed, to defray the cost of verifying the
tax map designation prior to recording. This certification fee shall be
payable to the Suffolk county clerk and shall be in addition to any
other applicable recording fees or charges. The provisions of this
subdivision shall not operate to invalidate any conveyance of such real
property on which the appropriate map designation or designations shall
not have been stated or which may have been erroneously stated nor
affect the record contrary to the provisions of this subdivision, nor
impair any title founded on such conveyance or record.
2. A recording officer shall not record or accept for record any
conveyance of real property, unless said conveyance in its entirety and
the certificate of acknowledgment or proof and the authentication
thereof, other than proper names therein which may be in another
language provided they are written in English letters or characters,
shall be in the English language, or unless such conveyance, certificate
of acknowledgment or proof, and the authentication thereof be
accompanied by and have attached thereto a translation in the English
language duly executed and acknowledged by the person or persons making
such conveyance and proved and authenticated, if need be, in the manner
required of conveyances for recording in this state, or, unless such
conveyance, certificate of acknowledgment or proof, and the
authentication thereof be accompanied by and have attached thereto a
translation in the English language made by a person duly designated for
such purpose by the county judge of the county where it is desired to
record such conveyance or a justice of the supreme court and be duly
signed, acknowledged and certified under oath or upon affirmation by
such person before such judge, to be a true and accurate translation and
contain a certification of the designation of such person by such judge.
3. The recording officer of every county and the city of New York
shall impose a fee of fifty dollars for every real property transfer
reporting form submitted for recording as required under subdivision
one-e of this section. The recording officer shall remit forty-one
dollars from such fee to the state office of real property services
every month for deposit in the improvement of real property tax
administration account established pursuant to section ninety-seven-ll
of the state finance law. The remainder of the revenue collected shall
be retained by the county or by the city of New York.

S 333-a. Same; maps to be filed. No conveyance of real property or
other document relating to real property, executed on or after July
first, nineteen hundred thirty-one, which contains a recital of or a
reference to a map made on or after that date or which has thereunto
attached such a map, shall be received for record or recorded by such
recording officer unless and until a duplicate of such map, prepared in
the same manner as prescribed for the preparation of maps in section
three hundred and thirty-four of this chapter, shall be filed in the
office of such recording officer and no map, attached to any conveyance
or other document relating to real property, shall exceed the standard
legal cap size, except that in the county of Putnam the size shall be
not less than twenty by twenty inches and not more than thirty-six by
forty-eight inches in size and that in the counties of Westchester and
Dutchess the size shall not be more than thirty-six by forty-eight
inches. This section shall not apply to the counties of New York, Kings,
Queens, Nassau, Suffolk, Bronx, Onondaga, Erie, Monroe or Richmond.
Notwithstanding any of the provisions of this section a conveyance of
real property or other document relating to real property shall not be
invalid or void for failure to file therewith any map referred to in
such conveyance or document.

S 333-b. Recording of maps or plot plans. 1. Notwithstanding any other
provisions of this article, a map or plot plan showing property
boundaries and data not relating to subdivisions and the filing thereof
may be recorded in the same manner as a deed, if the map or plot plan is
attached to the conveying instrument. A map or plot plan recorded
pursuant to this section shall clearly delineate and locate by
dimensions the parcel or interest conveyed in such manner that such
parcel or interest can be located on the premises affected. Such map or
plot plan may appear on one or more pages as needed, shall be drawn on
legal size paper and shall have lettering thereon no smaller than elite
type, and all lines shall be legible and of sufficient size for easy
reading after photocopying or microfilming. The recording officer may
reject or refuse to record any map or plot plan that is unclear, crowded
and not suitable for photocopying.
2. If the property is situated in a county maintaining a tax map
department, it shall be the duty of the person, corporation or agent who
offers such map or plot plan for recording to deliver to and leave with
the recording officer a duplicate copy of the map or plot plan. Such
duplicate copy shall be transmitted to the tax map department on or
before the fifteenth day of each month by the recording officer or by
such other officer or agency as may be designated by the county
legislative body.

S 333-c. Lands in agricultural districts; disclosure. 1. When any
purchase and sales contract is presented for the sale, purchase, or
exchange of real property located partially or wholly within an
agricultural district established pursuant to the provisions of article
twenty-five-AA of the agriculture and markets law, the prospective
grantor shall present to the prospective grantee a disclosure notice
which states the following:
"It is the policy of this state and this community to conserve,
protect and encourage the development and improvement of agricultural
land for the production of food, and other products, and also for its
natural and ecological value. This disclosure notice is to inform
prospective residents that the property they are about to acquire lies
partially or wholly within an agricultural district and that farming
activities occur within the district. Such farming activities may
include, but not be limited to, activities that cause noise, dust and
odors. Prospective residents are also informed that the location of
property within an agricultural district may impact the ability to
access water and/or sewer services for such property under certain
circumstances."
2. Such disclosure notice shall be signed by the prospective grantor
and grantee prior to the sale, purchase or exchange of such real
property.
3. Failure of the seller to provide such information to the buyer
shall not prevent the recording officer from filing such deed.

S 334. Maps to be filed; penalty for nonfiling. It shall be the duty
of every person or corporation who, as owner or agent, subdivides real
property into lots, plots, blocks or sites, with or without streets, for
the purpose of offering such lots, plots, blocks or sites for sale to
the public, to cause a map thereof, together with a certificate of the
licensed land surveyor filing said map attached showing the date of the
completion of the survey by said land surveyor and of the making of the
map by said land surveyor and the name of the subdivision as stated by
the owner, to be filed in the office of the county clerk or, in any
county having a register of deeds, in the office of the register of
deeds, of the county where the property is situated prior to the
offering of any such lots, plots, blocks or sites for sale; and a
duplicate copy of such map shall also be filed in the office of the
city, town or village clerk, where the property is situated, and, if
situated in a county maintaining a tax map department, a copy shall also
be filed with such department, before any such sale. All such maps must
be printed upon linen or canvas-backed paper or drawn with a pen and
India ink upon tracing cloth or printed on mylar, and must be a minimum
of eight and one-half inches by eleven inches, and a maximum of
thirty-four inches by forty-four inches in size, except that in the
counties of Westchester, Putnam and Rockland all maps presented for
filing must be printed or drawn with pen and ink upon tracing cloth or
printed on mylar; except that in the counties of Saratoga, Otsego,
Dutchess and Monroe, all maps presented for filing in the office of the
county clerk must be printed or drawn with pen and India ink upon
transparent tracing cloth or printed on mylar or polyester film or be
photographic copies on transparent tracing cloth or printed on mylar or
polyester film and further, that such maps to be filed in the counties
of Saratoga and Otsego shall be not less than eight and one-half inches
by fourteen inches nor more than thirty inches by forty-two inches in
size; except that in the county of Clinton all maps presented for filing
in the office of the county clerk must be printed or drawn with pen and
ink upon tracing cloth or canvas-backed paper or printed on mylar and
must be either eighteen inches by twenty-four inches or twenty-four
inches by thirty-six inches in size, and in the county of Putnam must be
not less than twenty inches by twenty inches and not more than
thirty-six inches by forty-eight inches in size, and in the counties of
Warren, Sullivan and Greene all maps presented for filing must be
printed or drawn with pen and India ink upon transparent tracing cloth
or polyester film or printed on mylar or be photographic copies on
transparent tracing cloth or polyester film or printed on mylar and
further, that such maps to be filed in Warren county, must be not less
than eight and one-half inches by eleven inches nor more than twenty-two
inches by thirty-four inches, in the county of Sullivan must be not less
than eight and one-half inches by eleven inches nor more than
twenty-four inches by thirty-six inches and in the county of Greene must
be not less than twelve inches by eighteen inches nor more than
twenty-four inches by thirty-six inches and in the counties of
Westchester and Dutchess must be thirty-six inches by forty-eight inches
or less in size, and that such maps to be filed in the county of Monroe
shall be in any one of the following sizes only: seventeen inches by
twenty-two inches, twenty-two inches by thirty-four inches or
thirty-four inches by forty-four inches. Every such subdivision map of
property in the towns of Tonawanda, Evans, West Seneca, Cheektowaga,
Amherst, Lancaster, Grand Island, Aurora, Concord, Collins, Alden,
Newstead, Clarence, Elma, Orchard Park and Hamburg, Erie county, located
wholly or partly outside an incorporated village, shall before the
filing thereof as herein provided, have attached thereto in writing, the
approval of the town board of such town, and every such map of property
located wholly or partly in an incorporated village in such town, shall,
if located wholly within the village have attached the approval of the
board of trustees of the village, and if located partly within a village
and partly within one of such towns, have attached the approval of both
the town board of the town and the board of trustees of the village.
Every such map of subdivided land, whether intended as an original
subdivision or as an alteration of a prior subdivision, shall have
endorsed thereon or annexed thereto at the time such map is offered to
be filed a certificate of the county treasurer or of an abstract and
title company and a certificate of the tax collecting officer of any
county, city, town or village wherein such property or any part thereof
is situate, stating that all taxes levied and unpaid and in addition,
all taxes which are a lien prior to the time such original or subsequent
map is offered to be filed, whether assessed against the entire tract of
land or against any lot or other part of such land, have been paid, and
a certificate of the county director of real property tax services that
the fee authorized by section five hundred three of the real property
tax law, if any, has been paid and the county clerk shall not file any
such map without such endorsements or certificates. All of such maps
shall be placed and kept, by some suitable method, in consecutive order
and shall be consecutively numbered in the order of their filing and
shall be indexed under the initial letters of all substantives in the
title of the subdivision. A failure to file any such map as required by
the provisions of this section shall subject the owner of such
subdivision, or of the unsold lots therein, to a penalty to the people
of the state of twenty-five dollars for each and every lot therein sold
and conveyed by or for such owner prior to the due filing of such map.

S 334-a. Filing of subdivision maps in Nassau county; penalty for
non-filing. 1. It shall be the duty of every person or corporation,
excepting church cemetery corporations attached to a religious parish
within the county of Nassau, who, as owner or agent of real property
situated in the county of Nassau, subdivides the same into lots, plots,
blocks, sites, or units with or without streets, for the purpose of
offering such lots, plots, blocks, sites, or units for sale to the
public, regardless of whether they are offered or conveyed by lot, plot
or block designations, units (including shares in a cooperative
corporation), or by metes and bounds, prior to the offering of such
lots, plots, blocks, sites or units for sale, to file or cause to be
filed in the office of the clerk of Nassau county a map or maps of such
real property, subject to the following exceptions:
(a) where real property is subdivided into not more than four lots,
plots, blocks, sites or units that conform to the applicable planning
and zoning regulations or ordinances of the city, town or village, as
the case may be, and such subdivision does not involve the laying out of
a street or the extension of a previously laid out street, the owner or
agent may make written application to the planning commission or
planning authorities having jurisdiction for a waiver of the filing
requirements hereunder upon forms supplied by the appropriate planning
commission. Such a waiver may be granted by such planning commission or
planning authorities after determining that such subdivision plat is in
compliance with this section and with the zoning and planning
regulations of the city, town or village, as the case may be, in which
the property is located. The request for a waiver shall be acted upon
without a public hearing within fifteen days after the filing of the
application unless such period shall have been extended by consent of
the applicant. Where real property is capable of being subdivided into
more than four lots, plots, blocks, sites or units that conform to the
applicable planning and zoning regulations or ordinances of the city,
town or village, as the case may be, and such subdivision does not
involve the laying out of a street or the extension of a previously laid
out street, the planning commission or planning authorities having
jurisdiction may, in the sole discretion of such planning commission or
planning authorities deny such waiver application and require the filing
in the office of the clerk of Nassau county a map or maps of such real
property, subject to appropriate conditions as in the judgment of such
planning commission or planning authorities as are requisite in the
interest of the public health, safety and general welfare; or
(b) where a subdivision map has been filed prior to January twelfth,
nineteen hundred forty-five, and alterations made thereon do not involve
any change, or extensions of previously laid out streets and where the
only alterations are changes in lot boundaries which are made solely for
the purpose of adhering to applicable zoning regulations, it shall not
be necessary to file such altered map or obtain a waiver therefor; or
(c) where there is a conversion of an existing structure into units,
which structure: (1) was in existence and legally occupied prior to
August fifth, nineteen hundred eighty-seven; and (2) where title to said
units is to be held in a condominium, cooperative or mixed form of
ownership; and (3) the use thereof is in compliance with the zoning and
planning regulations of the city, town or village, as the case may be,
in which the structure is located.
As used in this section, the term "units" shall include space used or
to be used for either residential, commercial, mixed or other use
whether title is held in fee simple, a condominium, cooperative, or
mixed form of ownership. It shall be unlawful, after a map or maps of
such property has been filed, to subdivide said property in a manner
other than as shown on said map unless said map has been amended and
approved in accordance with the provisions of subdivision six of this
section.
2. Such map or maps must be thirty-six inches by forty-eight inches or
less in size, drawn with pen and ink upon tracing cloth or printed on
mylar upon a scale of not more than one hundred feet to the inch and
oriented with the north point at the top of the map. At no time shall
the north point vary more than twenty degrees east or west of the
perpendicular border.
3. In case the lands sought to be shown upon the map are too extensive
to be shown upon a map thirty-six inches by forty-eight inches in size,
then a key map thirty-six inches by forty-eight inches in size, drawn
upon a reduced scale, but without detail, showing the entire quantity of
land, subdivided into units embracing the entire map, shall be made and
filed, and each subdivision or unit shall be shown upon a separate map.
4. Said map shall set forth the courses, measurements and adjoining
property owners with sufficient definiteness to determine the location
of said property, and upon each map shall appear the name of the record
owner and the name of the subdivision as stated by the owner and said
name shall be approved by the county clerk as a name not so similar to
the name appearing upon any filed subdivision map as to deceive or
mislead the public as to the identity of such subdivision.
5. Upon each and every of said maps shall appear the name or names of
the town or towns, city or cities, incorporated village or incorporated
villages in which said lands are located wholly or in part, and endorsed
thereon shall be a certificate of the licensed land surveyor who made or
caused the said map to be made, certifying that the map or maps were
made from an actual survey of the property that was performed by or
under the direction of said licensed land surveyor and the date of the
completion of the survey. Said certificate shall state that stone or
concrete monuments have been set at not less than two corners of every
street intersection as indicated on such map or maps and that the lands
shown thereon have been monumented in a manner to indicate the distance
from the nearest established street, avenue, road or highway, provided,
however, that where the planning board or other governmental agency
having jurisdiction over the approval of said maps has required the
subdivider to deposit with the town or local governing body a
performance bond or bonds to secure the installation and completion of
all site improvements, including setting stone or concrete monuments in
the streets as aforesaid, and simultaneously with the filing of said map
the subdivider files with the county clerk a written certification from
the town or local governing body that such bond or bonds have been duly
deposited and accepted by the town or local governing body and that said
bond or bonds expressly include the setting of stone or concrete
monuments as aforesaid, the said surveyor`s certificate may state that
stone or concrete monuments will be set at not less than two corners of
every street intersection as indicated on such map upon completion of
the installation of said streets and that the surveyor shall execute and
deliver a further written certification of the completion of such
monumentation to both the county clerk and the town or local governing
body prior to and as a condition for the release of said performance
bond or bonds.
6. Before such filing each and every of said maps shall be approved by
the planning commission or planning commissions having jurisdiction in
the area embraced within said maps in accordance with the regulations of
such planning commission or planning commissions and the approval of
such planning commission or planning commissions shall be endorsed
thereon.
6-a. Before such filing each and every of said maps shall have
endorsed thereon the consent to such filing of the mortgagees of such
real property.
7. The planning commission or planning authorities having jurisdiction
shall not approve any such map until the commissioner of public works of
Nassau county has endorsed thereon a statement that he has approved
plans for grades of the streets, avenues, roads or highways shown on
such map, and the drainage thereof. The commissioner of public works may
require that separate and distinct plans for the grading and drainage be
prepared. Such plans shall show sufficient data to enable the
commissioner of public works to determine the adequacy thereof. He may
require any changes in grades or plans which he deems necessary to make
such grades or plans conform with any general or comprehensive plan
adopted for the county, or to serve the best interests of the county as
a whole. Upon his approval of plans for the grades and drainage for the
streets, avenues, roads or highways shown on said map he shall endorse
such approval on the plans submitted to him, or as they shall have been
revised, and shall file same in his office, and shall file a print
thereof in the office of each planning authority having jurisdiction. He
shall further endorse on the map submitted to the planning authority for
approval a statement that he has approved grades and drainage for the
streets, avenues, roads or highways shown thereon, in accordance with
detailed plans on file in his office.
8. At the time of filing such map with the county clerk an abstract of
title and tax search of all of the property shown on said map together
with a certificate of title, certifying to the county of Nassau the name
or names of the owner or owners of said property together with all liens
thereon, shall be delivered to the county clerk and filed in his office.
Such abstract and search shall cover a period of not less than the
twenty years immediately preceding the date of the certificate and such
certificate shall be made by a title company duly incorporated and
authorized to transact business in the state of New York or a person
duly authorized to certify titles under the laws of the state of New
York. In the event the title to said property has been duly registered
pursuant to the provisions of the real property law for the registration
of titles to real property, that fact shall be set forth upon the
original map together with the number of the certificate of the title so
registered and an index of such abstracts and registrations made to
clearly indicate the maps to which they refer and the abstract of title
and certificate of title above referred to shall not be required. In the
case of a tax title, the fee title for a period of at least twenty years
prior to the date of the tax sale under which tax title is claimed must
be submitted as a part of the abstract.
9. Every such map, whether intended as an original subdivision or as
an alteration of a prior subdivision in such county, shall have endorsed
thereon at the time such map is offered to be filed the certificates of
the county treasurer and the receiver of taxes of each town and city and
the tax collecting officer of each incorporated village within which any
part of the tract of land shown on said map or maps is located, or of a
title company authorized to transact business in the state of New York
stating that all taxes and assessments which are liens prior to the time
such original or subsequent map is offered to be filed, whether assessed
against the entire tract of land or against any lot or other part of
said land, shown on the tax search required to be filed with the county
clerk, have been paid.
10. At the time of the filing of such map there shall also be
furnished to the county clerk a copy of such map, prepared upon tracing
cloth by such process as he shall prescribe, which shall be duly
certified by him to be a true copy of the original and which shall be
forwarded by him to the board of assessors of the county. 11. The clerk
of the county of Nassau upon receiving such maps shall file them by some
suitable method in consecutive order and they shall be consecutively
numbered in the order of filing and indexed under the initial letters of
all substantives in the titles.
12. The fee of the county clerk for receiving and filing each of said
separate maps or sheets and indexing the same shall be five dollars, and
an additional fee for every block created, which fee shall be the same
as the additional fee provided for block indexing by the Nassau county
administrative code.
13. Failure to file said map or maps as required by the provisions of
this section, shall subject the owner of such lands shown upon such
maps, or of unsold lots, plots or units thereon, to a penalty to the
people of the state of New York of five hundred dollars for each and
every lot, plot or unit thereon subdivided, sold or conveyed by or for
such owner prior to the due filing of such map or maps.
14. Whenever at least two years have elapsed since the filing of a map
of the subdivision of any tract of land into lots, plots, blocks or
sites, with or without opened or proposed roads, the owner of such
tract, or of any part thereof having an area equivalent to that of any
two or more contiguous lots or an area of not less than one-half acre,
may abandon and cancel the subdivision of the property so owned by
recording in the office of the county clerk a written certificate of
abandonment, duly executed and acknowledged, which shall contain a
description of the property to be abandoned, the complete title or name
of the map, the filing date and file number thereof, except that no
opened or proposed streets, other than those entirely within the bounds
of the property to be abandoned, or the area within such bounds of
streets which as laid out on said map come to a dead-end within such
bounds, shall be abandoned unless each owner of a lot or interest in the
subdivision consents to the abandonment thereof by instrument in writing
duly executed, acknowledged and recorded with the certificate of
abandonment; provided, however, that whenever at least twenty years have
elapsed since the filing of said map, the owner of the property to be
abandoned may, without such consent, abandon any streets or portions
thereof shown on said map and which are within the bounds of the
property to be abandoned if such streets or portions thereof are neither
opened, nor public highways, nor used by the public, nor necessary for
the use of owners, occupants or any other persons having an interest in
any part of the subdivision; but nothing herein shall prevent an owner
using or a seller of land from conveying part of a lot, plot or site
separately or together with an adjoining lot, plot or site, subject to
the provisions of local zoning ordinances. Whenever there is on file
more than one map of the property to be abandoned, such property must be
abandoned in the manner herein provided as to each of such maps. A copy
of each certificate of abandonment must be filed with the assessor
and/or board of assessors of each town and village wherein any portion
of the property to be abandoned is situated, and the endorsement of
approval by each such assessor and/or board of assessors must be
endorsed on the original of each certificate presented to the county
clerk for recording. An abstract of title to the property to be
abandoned covering a period of at least twenty years last past, and a
certificate of the county treasurer of Nassau county to the effect that
there are no unpaid tax liens against such property, must be submitted
to the county clerk and be approved by him at the time the certificate
of abandonment and cancellation is offered for recording. Said
certificates and abstracts shall be filed in the county clerk`s office,
a suitable index shall be kept of the same, and notice thereof shall be
endorsed by the recording officer upon the map therein referred to at
the time of recording the certificate of abandonment. Where the
endorsement of approval of the town or village assessor above referred
to includes a recitation to the effect that the municipality has duly
adopted an urban renewal plan pursuant to article fifteen of the general
municipal law which plan provides for adequate street access to all
properties within and adjacent to the planning area, and further that
the property to be abandoned is subject to said plan, and its
abandonment is required thereunder, the clerk shall accept and record
the certificate of abandonment tendered therefor regardless of the area
thereof, and notwithstanding that the property to be abandoned is a
portion of an opened or proposed street for which the consent to the
abandonment thereof required in this subdivision has not been obtained.
Upon the abandonment of subdivided property as herein provided such
property shall, for all purposes, be regarded as a single tract of land.
No abandonment of lot divisions shall be made under this section for the
purpose of reviving or making effective any other subdivision of the
same tract of land and no map may be reinstated as it was prior to the
filing of any abandonment certificate. The fee of the county clerk for
such filing and indexing each certificate and abstract therewith shall
be ten dollars and shall be paid by the party presenting them for
filing. Provided, however, that the Nassau county board of supervisors
shall have full authority to abandon any subdivision of property or any
portion thereof which the county of Nassau now owns or may hereafter
acquire through the sale of tax liens, by causing to be filed with the
county clerk of Nassau county, a certificate of abandonment, duly
executed by the said county board, without regard to any of the other
foregoing requirements of this section. Nothing contained in this
section shall be construed to prevent the filing of a new map and
certificate of a subdivision of real property in the manner prescribed
herein, after, and in the area of, a subdivision or portion thereof
abandoned in accordance with the provisions of this section.

S 335. Filing of maps and abandonment of subdivisions in Suffolk
county; penalty for nonfiling. 1. It shall be the duty of every person
or corporation, excepting church cemetery organizations, attached to a
religious parish within the county of Suffolk, who as owner or agent
subdivides real property in Suffolk county into lots, plots, blocks or
sites, with or without streets, for the purpose of offering such lots,
plots, blocks or sites for sale to the public, regardless of how they
are conveyed, to file or cause to be filed in the office of the county
clerk of Suffolk county a map thereof together with a certificate of the
surveyor endorsed on the face of such map certifying same to have been
made from an actual survey of the property that was performed by or
under the direction of said surveyor and the date of the completion of
the survey. Said certificate shall state that stone or concrete
monuments have been set at not less than two corners of every street
intersection as indicated on such map, provided, however, that where the
planning board or other governmental agency having jurisdiction over the
approval of said maps has required the subdivider to deposit with the
town or local governing body a performance bond or bonds to secure the
installation and completion of all site improvements, including setting
stone or concrete monuments in the streets as aforesaid, and
simultaneously with the filing of said map the subdivider files with the
county clerk a written certification from the town or local governing
body that such bond or bonds have been duly deposited and accepted by
the town or local governing body and that said bond or bonds expressly
include the setting of stone or concrete monuments as aforesaid, the
said surveyor`s certificate may state that stone or concrete monuments
will be set at not less than two corners of every street intersection as
indicated on such map upon completion of the installation of said
streets and that the surveyor shall execute and deliver a further
written certification of the completion of such monumentation to both
the county clerk and the town or local governing body prior to and as a
condition for the release of said performance bond or bonds. All lots
and blocks on such map shall be numbered consecutively. Said map shall
set forth the courses, measurements and adjoining property owners with
sufficient definiteness to determine the location of said property and
the name of the subdivision as stated by the owner. Said name must
differ from any name already filed with the county clerk and must be
approved by the county clerk before the acceptance of the map. At the
time of the filing of such map there shall also be furnished to the
county clerk two copies of such map for each town and village in which
any portion of the mapped property is located. Such copies shall be duly
certified by him to be true copies of the original and one certified
copy shall be forwarded by said county clerk to the assessor or board of
assessors, as the case may be, of each town or village in which any
portion of said property is located. At the time of filing such map with
the county clerk an abstract of title of all of the property shown on
said map which shall cover a period of not less than the twenty years
last past the date it is submitted, certified by an attorney and
counselor at law of the state of New York, a title company duly
incorporated and authorized to transact business in the state of New
York or a competent searcher of titles, shall be presented to said
county clerk, and be filed in his office, unless the title to said
property has been duly registered pursuant to the provisions of the real
property law for the registration of titles to real property, in which
case this fact shall be set forth upon the original map together with
the number of the certificate of the title so registered. An index of
such abstracts and registrations shall be maintained to clearly indicate
the maps to which they refer. In the case of a tax title, the fee title
for a period of at least twenty years prior to the date of the tax sale
under which title is claimed must be submitted as a part of the
abstract. A key map, made to the scale of six hundred feet to one inch,
must appear on all maps submitted and must show one or more monuments in
the tract definitely tied to a given point or a monument set at the
point of the intersection of the side lines (as prolonged, if there is a
curve) of two established highways; said point or monument shall be that
which is nearest the proposed subdivision and shall not require a
measurement to be made across any portion of an established highway. No
re-mapping of subdivided property will be accepted for filing until
there has been filed with the county clerk a certificate of abandonment
and cancellation of the original map or the portion thereof to be
abandoned and cancelled in accordance with the provisions of this act.
Before a map will be eligible for filing, a certificate of the county
treasurer of Suffolk county or the report of a tax search by a licensed
title company must be submitted by the party presenting the map for
filing as a part of the abstract of title showing the payment in full of
all taxes due and payable at the date of filing. Such maps and abstracts
of title shall be filed as aforesaid and a copy of said map filed in the
office of the clerk of each town or village where any portion of said
property is located prior to the offering for sale of any lot, plot,
block or site thereon. All such maps must be printed or drawn upon
tracing cloth or linen or printed on mylar and must be of a standard
size of eighteen inches by twenty inches or thirty-six inches by twenty
inches and the original of such maps filed in said county clerk`s office
shall be placed and kept by some suitable method in consecutive order,
be consecutively numbered in the order of filing and shall be indexed
under the initial letters of all of the substantives in the title of the
subdivision. However, he may maintain a record of such maps in a
microfilm format provided he supplies facilities for displaying said
maps through projection with microfilm to the aforesaid standard sizes.
The fee of the county clerk for such filing, certifying and indexing
each map and copy thereof, and abstract of title therewith and
forwarding copies of said map to the assessors, boards of assessors and
clerks of the towns and villages where the property therein described is
located, shall be ten dollars and be paid by the party presenting them
for filing. Failure to file any such map as required by the provisions
of this section shall subject the owner of such subdivision or of the
unsold lots therein, to a penalty to the people of the state of New York
of two hundred fifty dollars for each and every lot therein sold and
conveyed by or for such owner prior to the due filing of such map and
abstract of title as aforesaid. The requirements as provided for in this
section may be applied to the filing of each and every kind of map
submitted for filing which is not a subdivision map of real property, at
the discretion of the county clerk, and the filing fee of ten dollars
shall be paid for the filing of any non-subdivision map so submitted.
2. Every such subdivision map of property in any of the towns of
Suffolk county located wholly or partly outside an incorporated village
in such towns, shall, before the filing thereof, as hereinbefore
provided, have indorsed on the face thereof in writing the approval of
the planning board of such towns, or in the towns not having planning
boards, the approval of the town board. Likewise, every such subdivision
map of property located wholly or partly within an incorporated village,
shall before the filing thereof, as hereinbefore provided, have endorsed
on the face thereof in writing the approval of the planning board of
such village, or in a village not having a planning board, the approval
of the board of trustees. In addition, every such subdivision map of
property in any of the towns of the county of Suffolk, whether located
wholly or partly, inside or outside, an incorporated village in such
towns, shall before the filing thereof, as hereinbefore provided, have
endorsed on the face thereof in writing the approval of the county
department of health.
3. Whenever at least two years have elapsed since the filing of a map
of the subdivision of any tract of land into lots, plots, blocks or
sites, with or without opened or proposed roads, the owner of such
tract, or of any part thereof having an area equivalent to that of any
two or more contiguous lots or an area of not less than one-half acre,
may abandon and cancel the subdivision of the property so owned by
recording in the office of the county clerk a written certificate of
abandonment, duly executed and acknowledged, which shall contain a
description of the property to be abandoned, the complete title or name
of the map, the filing date and file number thereof, except that no
opened or proposed streets, other than those entirely within the bounds
of the property to be abandoned, or the area within such bounds of
streets which as laid out on said map come to a dead-end within such
bounds, shall be abandoned unless each owner of a lot or interest in the
subdivision consents to the abandonment thereof by instrument in writing
duly executed, acknowledged and recorded with the certificate of
abandonment; provided, however, that whenever at least twenty years have
elapsed since the filing of said map, the owner of the property to be
abandoned may, without such consent, abandon any streets or portions
thereof shown on said map and which are within the bounds of the
property to be abandoned if such streets or portions thereof are neither
opened, nor public highways, nor used by the public, nor necessary for
the use of owners, occupants or any other persons having an interest in
any part of the subdivision; but nothing herein shall prevent an owner
using or a seller of land from conveying part of a lot, plot or site
separately or together with an adjoining lot, plot or site, subject to
the provisions of local zoning ordinances. Whenever there is on file
more than one map of the property to be abandoned, such property must be
abandoned in the manner herein provided as to each of such maps. A copy
of each certificate of abandonment must be filed with the assessor
and/or board of assessors of each town and village wherein any portion
of the property to be abandoned is situated, and the endorsement of
approval by each such assessor and/or board of assessors must be
endorsed on the original of each certificate presented to the county
clerk for recording. An abstract of title to the property to be
abandoned covering a period of at least twenty years last past, and a
certificate of the county treasurer of Suffolk county to the effect that
there are no unpaid tax liens against such property, must be submitted
to the county clerk and be approved by him at the time the certificate
of abandonment and cancellation is offered for recording. Said
certificates and abstracts shall be filed in the county clerk`s office,
a suitable index shall be kept of the same, and notice thereof shall be
endorsed by the recording officer upon the map therein referred to at
the time of recording the certificate of abandonment. Where the
endorsement of approval of the town or village assessor above referred
to includes a recitation to the effect that the municipality has duly
adopted an urban renewal plan pursuant to article fifteen of the general
municipal law which plan provides for adequate street access to all
properties within and adjacent to the planning area, and further that
the property to be abandoned is subject to said plan, and its
abandonment is required thereunder, the clerk shall accept and record
the certificate of abandonment tendered therefor regardless of the area
thereof, and notwithstanding that the property to be abandoned is a
portion of an opened or proposed street for which the consent to the
abandonment thereof required in this subdivision has not been obtained.
Upon the abandonment of subdivided property as herein provided such
property shall, for all purposes, be regarded as a single tract of land.
No abandonment of lot divisions shall be made under this section for the
purpose of reviving or making effective any other subdivision of the
same tract of land and no map may be reinstated as it was prior to the
filing of any abandonment certificate. The fee of the county clerk for
such filing and indexing each certificate and abstract therewith shall
be ten dollars and shall be paid by the party presenting them for
filing. Provided, however, that the Suffolk county board of supervisors
shall have full authority to abandon any subdivision of property or any
portion thereof which the county of Suffolk now owns or may hereafter
acquire through the sale of tax liens, by causing to be filed with the
county clerk of Suffolk county, a certificate of abandonment, duly
executed by the said county board, without regard to any of the other
foregoing requirements of this section. Nothing contained in this
section shall be construed to prevent the filing of a new map and
certificate of a subdivision of real property in the manner prescribed
herein, after, and in the area of, a subdivision or portion thereof
abandoned in accordance with the provisions of this section.

S 335-a. Easements of necessity. The owner of any lot, plot, block,
site or other parcel of real estate being a subdivision or part of a
subdivision of any larger parcel or parcels of real property shown upon
a map of said parcel or parcels of real property and of its subdivision
or subdivisions, filed in the office of the county clerk or of the
register of deeds of the county where the property is situated, prior to
the sale or conveyance of such lot, plot, block, site or other parcel,
or subdivision thereof by the seller thereof, upon which map any road or
street is indicated or shown as giving access to or egress from any
public road or street to such lot, plot, block, site or other parcel of
real estate thereon indicated or to any part thereof, sold or granted
after such filing, and the owner of any lot, plot, block, site or other
parcel of real estate, the conveyance whereof shall specifically give
the right of access to or egress from the same by any private road or
street over lands belonging to the maker of such conveyance and which
road or street is described in such conveyance, may, when necessary to
the enjoyment of the lot, plot, block or site or other parcel of real
estate so sold or conveyed and when the same is not bounded by a public
road, lay, beneath the roads or streets indicated and shown upon such
map or described in such conveyance as giving access to or egress from
any public road to such property so sold or conveyed as aforesaid, wires
and conduits for the purpose of supplying the said property with
electric light and telephone service. Such wires or conduits shall be
laid only on condition that the private roads or streets on which the
owner has the right of access to or egress from such property shall be
restored as nearly as possible to their original condition and that the
person or persons entitled to the fee of such private roads or streets
or having an easement over the same shall be compensated for actual
damage occasioned by the laying of such wires or conduits.
Nothing herein contained shall be deemed to affect in any manner lands
acquired by the city of New York for the purpose of construction or
development of its water supply system.

S 335-b. Recording of solar energy easements. 1. Any easement obtained
for the purpose of exposure of a solar energy device shall be created in
writing and shall be subject to the same conveyancing and instrument
recording requirements as other easements.
2. Any instrument creating a solar energy easement shall include, but
the contents shall not be limited to:
(a) The vertical and horizontal angles, expressed in degrees, at which
the solar energy easement extends over the real property subject to the
solar energy easement.
(b) Any terms or conditions or both under which the solar energy
easement is granted or will be terminated.
(c) Any provisions for compensation of the owner of the property
benefiting from the solar energy easement in the event of interference
with the enjoyment of the solar energy easement or compensation of the
owner of the property subject to the solar energy easement for
maintaining the solar energy easement.

S 336. Effect of recording demands or requirements of alien property
custodian. The recording in any county clerk`s or register`s office of
a demand or requirement against real property described therein, made by
or on behalf of the alien property custodian under and pursuant to the
trading with the enemy act adopted by the United States congress and
approved October sixth, nineteen hundred and seventeen, or any act
amendatory thereof or supplemental thereto, or any executive order or
proclamation issued in pursuance thereof, when duly indexed against the
name of the person or corporation whose property has thereby been
demanded or required, shall have the same force and effect as the making
of, delivery and recording of a deed of such real property or interest
therein by such person or corporation to said alien property custodian.
All recitals contained in any such demand or requirement, and in any
deed made by such custodian heretofore or hereafter recorded of all
facts required or permitted by said acts, proclamations or executive
orders to be found or determined by said alien property custodian, and
all recitals of conclusions or determinations by said acts,
proclamations or executive orders authorized to be made by him, and all
recitals of acts or things done by said custodian or his agents in
respect to the seizure of said property shall be evidence of the facts,
conclusions, determinations, acts and things so recited in any court of
this state in any action or proceeding affecting the title to or
ownership of such real property. Three months after this section takes
effect and the recording of the instrument containing such recitals, the
same shall become conclusive evidence of all such facts, conclusions,
determinations, acts and things as are so recited therein in any action
in any court affecting the title to or ownership of said land, unless
said action shall have been commenced before the expiration of such
three months.