WA House Bill 2459

Legislation

State: Washington
Signed: March 18, 2008

Effective: June 16, 2008
Chapter: 57

Summary

Washington becomes the sixteenth state to enact the Uniform Real Property Electronic Recording Act (URPERA), enabling county recorders to accept electronic real property documents for recording in conformance with technical standards set by the Washington Secretary of State.

Affects

Creates a new chapter in Title 65 of the Revised Code of Washington.

Changes
  1. Enacts the Uniform Real Property Electronic Recording Act (URPERA).
  2. Permits a Notary to use an electronic signature to notarize an electronic real property document without affixing an image of the Notary’s official physical seal.
  3. Tasks the Secretary of State to appoint an Electronic Recording Commission with a majority of county recorders or auditors for the purpose of making recommendations for technical standards to implement the Act.
Analysis

Washington becomes the sixteenth state to enact the Uniform Electronic Recording Act, authorizing county recorders to accept electronic documents for recordation. It will be interesting to see how the URPERA technical standards are implemented in Washington, a state that has enacted a strong digital signature statute. Under Washington law, a public-key certificate issued by a licensed certification authority must be used to affix an electronic signature (the so called “digital signature). However, in the URPERA, an “electronic signature” is defined much more broadly to allow any technology — and not just digital signatures with a Public Key Infrastructure — to affix an electronic signature. It remains to be seen if there will be a conflict between these two laws, one of which prescribes use of a particular technology for affixing an electronic signature and another which does not.

Read House Bill 2459.

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