What gets recorded after a NYC closing?

Recording puts an instrument into the public land records and gives it priority under RPL 291. In Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx that happens through ACRIS with the Office of the City Register. Staten Island records with the Richmond County Clerk, and counties outside the city use their own clerks.

The recorded set on a financed purchase is the deed, the new mortgage, any assignment of mortgage on a CEMA, the consolidation agreement itself, and satisfactions or releases of the liens paid off at the table. The transfer tax returns are submitted with the deed and become part of the package.

Filing is different from recording. The seller's 1099-S goes to the Internal Revenue Service rather than into the land records. A co-op transfer produces UCC filings and the corporation's records rather than a recorded deed, so a co-op sale generates almost nothing in ACRIS other than the tax returns.

Satisfactions deserve their own attention. A payoff wired at closing does not by itself clear the record, and satisfactions can take weeks or months to arrive from a servicer. An unsatisfied mortgage that nobody chased is one of the most common defects found in the next search, years later.

Confirm the outcome rather than assuming it. The recorded copies, showing the CRFN and the recording date, are the proof. Keep them with the policy and the settlement statement, since these are the documents the next buyer's title company will ask for.