Deeds and mortgages for Westchester County property are recorded with the Westchester County Clerk’s Land Records Division in White Plains, not through ACRIS, which covers only Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. Every Westchester package is built in the Clerk’s Property Records Electronic Portal (PREP): the recording cover page, the payment cover page and, for a deed, the state TP-584 and RP-5217 forms must all be generated there (Westchester County Clerk, Land Records). A deed for property in Yonkers, Mount Vernon or Peekskill also needs the city’s stamped transfer tax receipt.
Most rejections come from a missing piece of that package or from a document that fails a state recording requirement. This guide covers what goes into each package, how submission works, and the grounds on which the Clerk will refuse to record. Fee amounts are in Westchester closing costs and are not repeated here.
What goes in the package
| Item | Deed | Mortgage |
|---|---|---|
| PREP recording cover page | Required | Required |
| PREP payment cover page | Required | Required |
| TP-584 (from PREP) | Required | No |
| RP-5217 (from PREP) | Required | No |
| City stamped receipt | Yonkers, Mt. Vernon, Peekskill | No |
| Mortgage tax payment | No | Required unless exempt |
| Exemption affidavit | If claimed | If claimed |
Sources: Record a deed, Record a mortgage, PREP indexing requirements.
The PREP cover page
The Clerk has required PREP-generated cover pages and PREP-generated TP-584 and RP-5217 forms for all submissions since January 1, 2010 (Stewart Bulletin NY000423). The cover page carries the indexing data the Clerk records: the parties by role (grantor and grantee, mortgagor and mortgagee), the property, the document page count, cross-references where required, and the “Record and Return” information (PREP indexing requirements). After recording, the Clerk scans the document and mails the original to the address in the Record and Return box, so an error there sends the original to the wrong place.
Under CPLR § 8021(a)(4), a cover page is charged as an additional page of the instrument, and it may not include a Social Security number or date of birth. Count the cover page when you calculate the per-page fee and when you enter the page count in PREP.
Deed forms: TP-584 and RP-5217
The TP-584 is the state real estate transfer tax return. Under Tax Law § 1409(a)(3), the joint return must be filed with the recording officer before the deed may be recorded. The RP-5217 is the real property transfer report; under Real Property Law § 333(1-e), no conveyance may be recorded without it (or a receipt showing it was filed) and the filing fee. Both forms must be created in PREP.
If a signed form needs a correction, the Clerk accepts cross-outs on PREP-created forms when each handwritten change is initialed by the necessary parties, the PREP entry is edited to match, and both the signed form and the unsigned corrected form are submitted. Forms not created in PREP are accepted only in exceptional circumstances on written request (Stewart Bulletin NY000438). Stewart’s New York agent guidelines add that the RP-5217 must be printed on legal-size paper with the barcode showing (Stewart NY guidelines, p. 26); that is underwriter guidance, not a published Clerk rule.
When an LLC is the grantor or grantee of 1 to 4 family residential property, the Clerk’s LLC disclosure addendum, citing Tax Law § 1409(a), must accompany the TP-584 and list the LLC’s members, managers and other authorized persons.
City transfer tax receipt
Since August 1, 2013, the Clerk has refused to record a conveyance of property wholly or partly in Yonkers, Mount Vernon or Peekskill unless it is supported by the city’s stamped receipt, even when no city tax is due. PREP generates a bar-coded cover page for the receipt (Stewart Bulletin NY000529). The Clerk does not collect the city tax; the city must be paid first. Rates, deadlines and how to get the receipt are in Yonkers, Mount Vernon and Peekskill transfer taxes.
Mortgage tax, affidavits and Form MT-15
No mortgage may be recorded until the mortgage recording tax is paid (Tax Law § 258). The lender is responsible for making sure the mortgage meets the legal requirements for recording (Record a mortgage). Rates and the lender’s share are in Mortgage recording tax in NYC and Westchester.
Three filings are easy to confuse:
- Section 253(1-a) affidavit. Claims the exemption from the additional tax for a federal credit union or a natural-person lender. The Clerk publishes both forms on its forms page and requires the affidavit when the mortgage is presented.
- Section 255 affidavit. Claims the exemption on a supplemental mortgage or consolidation, such as a CEMA. The Clerk’s Section 255 requirements list 12 items, including the liber and page of each prior mortgage, the tax paid on each and the unpaid principal, and require the affidavit in duplicate. In PREP a consolidation or modification is indexed as a Registered Agreement, which requires the affidavit and its page count. See CEMA explained.
- Form MT-15. The state Mortgage Recording Tax Return apportions the tax when the property lies in localities with different rates. The form lists property partly in Yonkers and partly elsewhere in Westchester as one of those cases. It is filed in duplicate with the recording officer. A mortgage on property entirely within one rate area does not need it.
How to submit
The Clerk has accepted all land records electronically since September 24, 2012, through PREP or through national e-recording facilitators (Electronic recording). To e-record directly, a submitter signs the Westchester County Registered Submitter Agreement and sets up a pre-authorized ACH debit account; each takes about a week. Scans must be black and white, portrait, at least 200 dpi (240 recommended), as multi-page TIFF or PDF, with signatures and notary seals legible (image specifications).
Two kinds of package must go in hard copy: one that includes Form IT-2663 with a nonresident seller’s estimated tax payment, and one that requires another document to be shown, such as an original lease (documents accepted). On a sale by a nonresident seller, plan for a paper submission.
Mortgage and transfer taxes are paid by ACH, certified or bank check, attorney escrow check, or a check from an entity on the Clerk’s guaranteed vendor list. Taxes cannot be paid by credit card (Land Records fees).
Why recordings get rejected
The Clerk does not publish a list of common rejection reasons. The grounds below are the ones the statutes and the Clerk’s own requirements make conditions of recording, so a package that misses any of them will come back.
| Defect | Rule |
|---|---|
| Forms not from PREP | Clerk |
| No city stamped receipt | NY000529 |
| No TP-584 or tax | Tax Law § 1409 |
| No RP-5217 or fee | RPL § 333(1-e) |
| Party residences missing | RPL § 333(1-a) |
| City, town, village missing | RPL § 333(1-d) |
| Not in English, no translation | RPL § 333(2) |
| Not acknowledged | RPL § 291 |
| No nonresident form | Tax Law § 663(d) |
| Mortgage tax unpaid | Tax Law § 258 |
A few of these need explanation.
Addresses and municipality. A deed must state the residence of both seller and buyer, including street and number, and the city, town and village where the property sits. Omitting them does not invalidate the deed, but the Clerk may not record it (RPL § 333(1-a), (1-d)). Many Westchester villages sit inside towns, so check that a deed for village property names both.
Out-of-state acknowledgments. A deed signed outside New York can use the other state’s acknowledgment form only with a certificate of conformity under RPL § 299-a, and the Clerk publishes a certificate form for this. Using the New York uniform out-of-state form under RPL § 309-b avoids the certificate.
Mismatches between PREP and the document. The cover page, TP-584 and RP-5217 are generated from PREP data. If a party name, consideration or page count in PREP does not match the signed document, correct the PREP entry and follow the initialing procedure above rather than resubmitting an unchanged package.
Execution details. Stewart’s agent guidelines list items to check before submitting: documents dated and signed, names matching across all documents, notary acknowledgments complete with seal, a power of attorney signature reading “as authorized agent,” a legal description attached to the mortgage, and every page initialed where the mortgage calls for it (Stewart NY guidelines, pp. 25 to 27). These are underwriter checklist items, not Clerk rules.
Timing
A rejection does not stop the tax clocks. The state transfer tax is due within 15 days after delivery of the deed (Tax Law § 1410), and the Yonkers city tax is due within 7 days. In their note on Yonkers, Mount Vernon and Peekskill deeds, which must go to the city before the County Clerk, Stewart’s guidelines describe a “strict 7-day submission after closing period with monetary penalties” (p. 25); that figure matches the Yonkers deadline, and no Clerk page states a general 7-day recording rule. Get the city receipt before closing or pay the city immediately after, and submit the package the same week.
Until a deed is recorded, the buyer is exposed: under RPL § 291, an unrecorded conveyance is void against a later good-faith purchaser for value who records first. The same section requires the Clerk to mail a notice to the owner of record when a conveyance of residential property is recorded, at the recording party’s cost.
For who prepares the PREP package at a Westchester closing, see Who does what at a New York closing. For recording the seller’s mortgage satisfaction, which must be recorded in the county where the mortgage was recorded, see Clearing an old unsatisfied mortgage.
Official sources
- Westchester County Clerk, Land Records, Record a deed, Record a mortgage, Electronic recording, Forms and Land Records fees
- Westchester County Clerk PREP, Indexing requirements, Image specifications and Documents accepted
- Westchester County Clerk, Requirements for Section 255 affidavits and LLC disclosure addendum for TP-584
- New York Real Property Law § 291, § 299-a, § 309-b and § 333
- New York Tax Law § 258, § 663, § 1409 and § 1410
- New York CPLR § 8021
- NYS Department of Taxation and Finance, Form MT-15, Mortgage Recording Tax Return
- Stewart Title, Bulletin NY000423 (PREP requirement), Bulletin NY000438 (corrected forms), Bulletin NY000529 (city receipt) and New York guidelines for out-of-state and new agents, pp. 25 to 27