AnalysisMississippi adopts a new certificate of acknowledgment to be used for any business organization, foreign or domestic, in acknowledging a document conveying real or personal property. House Bill 723 also states that unless a document is acknowledged or proved by a subscribing witness, the clerk of the chancery court may refuse to record the document in the land records. However, the law also clarifies that if a document is recorded, not having first been acknowledged or proved, the document still imparts what is known as “constructive notice” of the contents of the document. Constructive notice means that persons are assumed to have knowledge of something by virtue of the fact that it is in the public record. For example, if one purchases property, he or she is presumed to know the legal status of that property because it is available through public records.
Read House Bill 723.