Title 11, Counties

Any sum remaining in the state's attorney's contingent fund on the thirty-first day of December of each year shall be transferred by the county auditor to the general fund of the county.

If a state's attorney is aware of any violation or criminal act causing a death or has reason to believe a felony has been committed, the state's attorney may, prior to a crime being charged, inquire into the facts of the violation or criminal act, and, with the consent and appro…

1. The state's attorney for each county may create and administer a prosecution-led diversion program if, after due consideration of any crime victim's rights and subject to approval from the court, the prosecuting attorney and the defendant agree to suspend prosecution for a per…

Whenever the term "register of deeds" appears in the North Dakota Century Code, the term "recorder" or "county recorder", whichever is appropriate, must be substituted therefor. The recorder must be substituted for, take any actions previously taken by, and perform all duties pre…

Except as otherwise provided in section 11-18-03, the recorder shall refuse to receive or record any deed, contract for deed, plat, replat, patent, auditor's lot, or any other instrument that changes the current property description unless there is entered thereon a certificate o…

The recorder shall notify the county auditor of the filing of deeds, patents, plats, and vacations of plats, streets, or roads at the time such documents are filed in the recorder's office. The county auditor shall correct the tax rolls and any other records in the auditor's offi…

1. Any grantee or grantee's authorized agent who presents a deed in the office of the county recorder shall certify on the face of the deed one of the following: a. A statement of the full consideration paid for the property conveyed. b. A statement designating one of the exempti…

The following instruments may be recorded by the recorder without the auditor's certificate referred to in section 11-18-02: 1. A sheriff's or referee's certificate of sale on execution or on foreclosure of a mortgage. 2. A mineral deed conveying oil, gas, and other minerals in o…

The recorder shall maintain a seal and make an impression of the same upon each instrument to which the recorder attaches the recorder's official signature. The seal shall bear the following inscription: Recorder of _________________ County.

The recorder shall charge and collect the following fees: 1. For recording an instrument affecting title to real estate: a. Deeds, mortgages, and all other instruments not specifically provided for in this subsection, twenty dollars for documents containing one to six pages and s…

The recorder shall maintain an accounting record of fees for services rendered. Within three days after the close of each calendar month and also at the end of the recorder's term of office, the recorder shall file with the county auditor a statement under oath showing the fees t…

The recorder shall keep a tract index of the deeds, contracts, and other instruments that are not merely liens and a tract index of the mortgages and other liens affecting or relating to the title to real property. The indexes must be in substantially the following forms: FORM OF…

The recorder shall keep separate grantor and grantee indexes of the deeds, contracts, and other instruments not merely liens, and separate grantor and grantee indexes of the mortgages and other instruments which are liens affecting or relating to the title to real property. Such …

The recorder, when any deed, patent, mortgage, receiver's receipt, contract, notice of lis pendens, copy of decree, or other instrument affecting the title to, or creating a lien upon, any real estate within the county is filed in the recorder's office, shall write or stamp there…

The recorder shall keep a record known as "The Reception Record". The record must be ruled in parallel columns showing: 1. The document number. 2. The date of recording. 3. The name of the grantor. 4. The name of the grantee. 5. The character of the instrument. 6. The book and pa…

When an instrument affecting the title to or creating a lien upon real estate within the county is numbered and entered in the reception record and indexed, it must be recorded or filed as provided by law. The recorder shall provide recording information on the instrument as requ…

The provisions of sections 11-18-09, 11-18-10, and 11-18-11 shall not extend to, nor cover the indexing and filing of, a financing statement. Such instrument shall be indexed and filed as provided in chapter 41-09.

The recorder in each county in this state, unless otherwise earlier permitted by law, shall remove from the files in the recorder's office, and destroy, all chattel mortgages, agricultural processor's liens, agricultural supplier's liens, agister's liens, mechanic's liens, repair…

The notary seal on any document filed with a recorder may be: 1. In either a stamped or an imprinted form; or 2. An official stamp, as defined in section 44-06.1-01.

Within thirty days of the issuance of any judgment or final decision in a court action or arbitration proceeding which establishes a boundary for real property that deviates from the existing boundaries established by the United States public land surveys, surveys using the North…

The county treasurer shall establish a document preservation fund to receive the portion of the recording fees authorized by section 11-18-05. The revenue in this fund may be used only for contracting for and purchasing equipment and software for a document preservation, storage,…

1. A document that includes a social security number may not be filed or recorded with the recorder unless a law requires the social security number to be in the document in order to be filed or recorded. A document that is required to contain a social security number may be reco…

The county surveyor shall make all surveys of land within the county which the county surveyor may be called upon to make by the owner of the land or the owner's representative, or which the county surveyor is directed to make by the district court, by the board of county commiss…

The county surveyor may appoint one or more deputies and may revoke any such appointment at pleasure. An appointment or revocation shall be in writing, signed by the surveyor, and filed with the recorder, unless the board of county commissioners designates a different official. E…

The county surveyor may appoint all chainmen, markers, and assistants required to make a survey. When the survey is of lines and monuments in dispute between parties or is made by order of the district court, the chainmen must be disinterested persons.

Every chainman and marker employed by the county surveyor in making surveys shall take an oath that the person will discharge the person's duties faithfully. The county surveyor or the surveyor's deputy making the survey may administer such oaths.

The certificate of the surveyor, or of the surveyor's deputy, of any survey of any lands in the county made by the person shall be presumptive evidence of the facts therein contained unless the surveyor shall be interested in the lands described in the certificate.

Whenever a survey is required of land in which the county surveyor or either of the surveyor's deputies may be interested, or when from any cause the surveyor or deputy surveyor of the county cannot be found or is unable to act, the survey may be made by the surveyor of an adjoin…

All surveys made by the county surveyor must be made in accordance with the rules and regulations laid down by the commissioner of the United States general land office and in accordance with the following principles, when applicable: 1. All corners and boundaries which can be id…

Each county surveyor shall keep the original field notes of all surveys made by the surveyor or the surveyor's deputies for permanent purposes in well-bound books of convenient size furnished by the county surveyor at the expense of the county. Each book shall contain an index re…

The original field notes shall be taken and set down in the manner in which field notes of the United States surveys are kept and shall contain all of the details of each survey in the order in which the survey was made. The notes shall include in full all calculations made by th…

The original field notes shall be a part of the record required to be kept by the county surveyor and the books containing the notes shall be kept with the surveyor's other records of the county. Whenever one of the field books is filled or whenever a deputy county surveyor shall…

The county surveyor shall record in a suitable book which the surveyor shall provide at the expense of the county all surveys for permanent purposes made by the surveyor and the surveyor's deputies, except surveys for township highways.

The record of each survey shall contain: 1. The evidence by which the surveyor determined or identified the corners or other starting points of the survey. 2. A full description of the starting points and the means which were taken to perpetuate the starting points upon the groun…

The records of the county surveyor may be kept in the office of the county auditor and shall be competent evidence in all courts of the facts therein set forth.

Whenever two or more resident owners of real estate desire to have the corners and lines of their lands established, relocated, or perpetuated, they shall give at least ten days' notice of the time of the proposed survey to all other persons owning lands in the same section, and …

1. One or more owners of property may file with the clerk of district court a petition requesting the district court to direct the county surveyor to survey the property. The court shall set a time and place for a hearing on the petition. The hearing may not occur until three wee…

The surveyor, when employed by private landowners as provided in section 11-20-14, shall sink into the earth at all section and quarter post corners a column of concrete or a cement block at least two feet [.61 meter] high, twelve inches [304.80 millimeters] square at the base, a…

All necessary chainmen and other assistants of the county surveyor shall be paid for their services by the person requiring the work to be done, unless it is otherwise specially agreed.

When a county surveyor resigns or is removed from office, the surveyor shall deliver all books and papers relating to the office to the surveyor's successor or to the board of county commissioners if no successor has been appointed. A county surveyor who shall neglect to so deliv…

The presiding judge of the judicial district in which a county is located may, after consultation with the judges of the judicial district, appoint a public administrator for that county. A public administrator may be a corporation or limited liability company. The initial appoin…

The bond of the public administrator shall run to the state of North Dakota for the benefit of any party who may be damaged by a breach of the conditions thereof. Whether the bond is issued by the state bonding fund or by a surety company, it shall guarantee that the public admin…

The judge of the district court shall require the public administrator to make a statement annually, under oath, of the amount of property in the administrator's hands or under the administrator's control as administrator, for the purpose of ascertaining the amount of bond necess…

The public administrator shall file the administrator's oath and bond with the judge of the district court. The bond and oath must be recorded at length in the record books of the court.

The public administrator shall be ex officio public special administrator, guardian, and conservator in and for the county and shall take into the administrator's charge, without application to any appropriate court or special appointment, the estates of all deceased persons, and…

The public administrator shall have the same powers as are conferred upon special administrators, guardians, and conservators, and shall be subject to the same duties, penalties, provisions, and proceedings as are enjoined upon or authorized against special administrators, guardi…