The importance of a good mailing address within a recorded Washington title instrument.

Title interests are created in the underlying instrument between grantor and grantee.  Interests are then perfected through public recording of the instrument with the county recorder.  Recording imparts both actual and constructive knowledge of the instrument to 3^rd parties.  Levien v. Fiala, 79 Wn. App. 294, 300 (1995).

It is important to identify a good mailing address, especially for the grantee, within the instrument.  This is because notices from 3^rd parties of proceedings that may impair the grantee’s interest will often be directed to the address contained within the instrument.  A 3^rd party is unlikely to have personal knowledge of where the grantee accepts mail and will rely-upon the address published within the instrument.  

Notices from 3^rd parties can include foreclosure notices requiring action on the part of the grantee within a specified period of time, or else the interest is lost.  Notices from 3^rd parties can also include notice of the availability of surplus funds following a foreclosure.  It is not uncommon for parties entitled to surplus funds following foreclosure to receive no actual notice because their published address is stale (for example, the address utilized by the borrower / homeowner was the address of the foreclosed home).   

If a grantee’s published mailing address within a recorded interest is stale, the grantee can do a recording to update the address.  Parties without recorded interests, but who are otherwise interested in proceedings affecting title, can sometimes record a “request for notice”.  Foreclosing attorneys and trustees will generally oblige a recorded “request for notice” and add that address to their mailing matrix.