North Carolina Registers of Deeds are elected county officials. Their duties include recording, indexing, and storing real estate related documents filed with them.

Registers of Deeds can choose to record and index documents electronically but only if they follow legal standards. The Secretary of State adopts the standards for electronic recording. The Secretary first adopted the standards in 2006. She adopted revised standards in 2011.

NC law created the Electronic Recording Council (ERC). The ERC’s purpose is to help the Secretary decide what the standards should be. The ERC advises and assists the Secretary and recommends standards for electronic recording of property documents like deeds. The ERC meets when it is necessary to consider recommending changes to the standards.

The ERC’s meetings are public and posted on our webpage as well as on the State Public Meetings Calendar.

ERC Membership

The law sets both the number of the ERC’s members and who appoints them. Here are the names of the appointing entities and their appointees:

• 7 members appointed by the NC Association of Registers of Deeds:
• 1 member appointed by the NC Society of Land Surveyors
• 1 member appointed by the NC Bankers Association
• 1 member appointed by the NC Land Title Association
• 1 member appointed by the NC Association of Assessing Officers
• The Secretary of Natural and Cultural Resources or her designee

The ERC is staffed by employees of the Secretary of State’s Office.

• North Carolina Electronic Recording Standards
• ERC and the Standards Requirement
• Best Practices for Electronic Recording
• Model Submitter Agreement for Electronic Recording

• NC Association of Registers of Deeds
• NC Bar Association
• NC Society of Land Surveyors
• NC Bankers Association
• NC Land Title Association
• NC Association of Assessing Officers
• Department of Natural and Cultural Resources