SECTIONS 1213-1220 - California Statutes

CIVIL CODE

SECTION 1213-1220

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.

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.

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.

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.

1217. An unrecorded instrument is valid as between the parties
thereto and those who have notice thereof.

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.

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.

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.