ARTICLE 4. Effect of Recording, or the Want Thereof [1213. - 1220.]

Cal. Civil Code - CIV 4.

in effect

Cal. Civil Code - CIV § 1213. Section 1213.

Every conveyance of real property or an estate for years therein acknowledged or proved and certified and recorded as prescribed by law from the time it is filed with the recorder for record is constructive notice of the contents thereof to subsequent purchasers and mortgagees; and a certified copy of such a recorded conveyance may be recorded in any other county and when so recorded the record thereof shall have the same force and effect as though it was of the original conveyance and where the original conveyance has been recorded in any county wherein the property therein mentioned is not situated a certified copy of the recorded conveyance may be recorded in the county where such property is situated with the same force and effect as if the original conveyance had been recorded in that county.

Cal. Civil Code - CIV § 1214. Section 1214.

Every conveyance of real property or an estate for years therein, other than a lease for a term not exceeding one year, is void as against any subsequent purchaser or mortgagee of the same property, or any part thereof, in good faith and for a valuable consideration, whose conveyance is first duly recorded, and as against any judgment affecting the title, unless the conveyance shall have been duly recorded prior to the record of notice of action.

Cal. Civil Code - CIV § 1215. Section 1215.

The term “conveyance,” as used in Sections 1213 and 1214, embraces every instrument in writing by which any estate or interest in real property is created, aliened, mortgaged, or incumbered, or by which the title to any real property may be affected, except wills.

Cal. Civil Code - CIV § 1216. Section 1216.

No power contained in an instrument to convey or execute instruments affecting real property which has been recorded is revoked by any act of the party by whom it was executed, unless the instrument containing such revocation is also acknowledged or proved, certified and recorded, in the same office in which the instrument containing the power was recorded.

Cal. Civil Code - CIV § 1217. Section 1217.

An unrecorded instrument is valid as between the parties thereto and those who have notice thereof.

Cal. Civil Code - CIV § 1218. Section 1218.

A certified copy of an instrument affecting the title to real property, once recorded, or a certified copy of the record of such instrument may be recorded in any other county, and, when so recorded, the record thereof has the same force and effect as though it was of the original instrument.

Cal. Civil Code - CIV § 1219. Section 1219.

Oil and gas leases may be acknowledged or proved, certified and recorded in like manner and with like effect, as grants of real property. However, an oil and gas lease may be recorded and constructive notice of the same and the contents of that lease given in the following manner: Any person may record in the office of county recorder of any county fictitious oil and gas leases. Those fictitious oil and gas leases need not be acknowledged, or proved, or certified, to be recorded or entitled to record. Oil and gas leases shall have noted upon the face thereof that they are fictitious. The county recorder shall index and record fictitious oil and gas leases in the same manner as other oil and gas leases are recorded, and shall note on all indices and records of the same that they are fictitious. Thereafter, any of the provisions of any recorded fictitious oil and gas lease may be included for any and all purposes in any oil and gas lease by reference therein to those provisions, without setting the same forth in full, if the fictitious oil and gas lease is of record in the county in which the oil and gas lease adopting or including by reference any of the provisions of the lease is recorded. The reference shall contain a statement, as to each county in which the oil and gas lease containing such a reference is recorded, of the date the fictitious oil and gas lease was recorded, the county recorder’s office in which it is recorded, and the book or volume and the first page of the records or the recorder’s instrument number in the recorder’s office in which the fictitious oil and gas lease was recorded, and a statement by paragraph numbers or any other method that will definitely identify the same, of the specific provisions of any fictitious oil and gas lease that are being adopted and included therein. The recording of any oil and gas lease which has included any provisions by reference shall operate as constructive notice of the whole including the terms, as a part of the written contents of any oil and gas lease, of any provisions so included by reference as though the same were written in full therein. The parties bound or to be bound by provisions so adopted and included by reference shall be bound thereby in the same manner and with like effect for all purposes as though the provisions had been and were set forth in full in the oil and gas lease.

Cal. Civil Code - CIV § 1220. Section 1220.

Contracts for the purchase or sale of standing timber or trees, for severance or otherwise, and all instruments in writing by which any estate or interest in, or right to cut, standing timber or trees is created, aliened, mortgaged or encumbered or by which the title to any standing timber or trees may be affected, may be acknowledged or proved, certified and recorded in like manner and with like effect, as grants of real property, and all statutory provisions relating to the recordation or nonrecordation of conveyances of real property and to the effect thereof shall apply to such contracts and instruments with like effect. Any such contracts for purchase and sale or instruments in writing affecting the title to standing timber or trees, executed and delivered before the effective date of the amendment of this section at the 1959 Regular Session of the Legislature but unrecorded before such date, shall become subject to all statutory provisions relating to the recordation or nonrecordation of conveyances of real property and to the effect thereof one year from said effective date.

Source: CA Legislative Counsel Bulk DataURL: https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/pubinfo_2025.zipFetched: 6/27/2026