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What are government recording charges for a mortgage?

Government recording charges are fees assessed by state and local government agencies for legally recording your deed, mortgage and documents related to your home loan.

Either a buyer or a seller may pay these fees. These charges are listed in section E on page 2 of your Loan Estimate (and section E on page 2 of your Closing Disclosure). The sum of these charges and certain other settlement services generally cannot increase by more than 10 percent in total at closing.

Note: You will not receive a Loan Estimate or Closing Disclosure if you are shopping for:

For these kinds of loans, you should receive Truth-in-Lending disclosures. If you are shopping for a reverse mortgage, you will also receive a Good Faith Estimate (GFE) and a HUD-1 or HUD-1A Settlement Statement. Government recording charges are listed in Blocks 7 and 8 of your GFE and Lines 1201-1205 of your HUD-1 or HUD-1A settlement statement.