Chautauqua land records belong with the County Clerk

Chautauqua County’s land-recording page is the right doorway for county record questions, not a shortcut to tax assessment. Use it when a closing packet, deed, mortgage, discharge, satisfaction, or transfer-tax question needs the County Clerk’s recording rules. The page is explicit that recording fees are payable to the Chautauqua County Clerk and that mortgage tax or transfer tax may be due at recording.

The local confusion is that one property problem can involve several offices. The Clerk records the document. The real-property office or assessor handles value and tax-roll information. A surveyor or attorney may be needed for boundary or title questions. Before sending papers to Mayville, check the county page for the deed or mortgage fee schedule, required forms such as TP-584 and RP-5217, and deed basics like legal description and notarized original signature. Then call the land-recording office with the document type from the packet, not just the address, seller name, buyer name, closing date, lender question, fee question, or tax-map number. That keeps a recording question from turning into a general property-help call.