A few weeks after a deed is recorded, a letter shows up. It knows things. It names the trust exactly as it appears on the deed. It lists the property address, the date the deed was recorded, the year the house was built, the square footage, and the assessed value. There is a barcode across the top, a box with a respond by date, and a detachable coupon at the bottom with a service fee printed on it and an address to mail the check.
What it asks for is a processing fee, often somewhere between $80 and $135, in exchange for a copy of the deed you just signed and a property profile report. Clients call our office about this letter more than almost any other piece of mail they receive, and the question is always the same: is this real, and do I have to pay it.
The short version: The letter is a marketing solicitation from a private company. It is not a bill, it is not from the county, and nothing bad happens if you ignore it. The Los Angeles County Registrar Recorder will sell you a certified copy of the same deed for $6 for the first page and $3 for each additional page. California law requires these mailers to print that county option in 14 point boldface at the top of every page. The ones our clients bring in almost never do.
Why the letter knows so much about you
Recorded deeds are public records, and that is by design. The whole point of recording is to put the world on notice of who owns the property. County recorders publish new recordings continuously, data companies pull that feed every day, and a mail house turns each new recording into a personalized letter within a few weeks.
So the accuracy is not evidence that the sender is official. It is evidence that the sender bought a data file. The trust name, the parcel details, and the recording date in that letter came from the same public record anyone can look at, including you.
What a copy of your deed actually costs
In Los Angeles County, the Registrar Recorder and County Clerk charges $6 for the first page of a certified copy and $3 for each additional page. A plain, uncertified copy is $5 for the first page and $3 for each additional page. A grant deed is usually one or two pages, so the real cost is roughly $6 to $9. Other California counties are in the same range.
There is a good chance you do not need to buy one at all:
- The recorder already mailed you the original. After a deed is recorded, the county returns the original document to the person or address named on the face of the deed. Check the folder from your closing or from your trust signing before you buy anything.
- Your title or escrow company kept a conformed copy. One phone call usually produces a PDF at no charge.
- Your attorney has it. If we prepared and recorded the deed that moved your home into your trust, the recorded copy is in your file, and we will send it to you.
What California law requires that letter to say
California regulates this exact business. Business and Professions Code section 17537.10 governs what it calls a grant deed copy service, meaning any business that mails property owners an offer to obtain a copy of their grant deed or other record of title for a fee.
The statute requires the mailer to carry this disclosure, at the top of each page, in 14 point boldface type, inside a box formed by a heavy line:
THIS SERVICE TO OBTAIN A COPY OF YOUR GRANT DEED OR OTHER RECORD OF TITLE IS NOT ASSOCIATED WITH ANY GOVERNMENTAL AGENCY. YOU CAN OBTAIN A COPY OF YOUR GRANT DEED OR OTHER RECORD OF TITLE FROM THE COUNTY RECORDER IN THE COUNTY WHERE YOUR PROPERTY IS LOCATED FOR [the county fee].
The same section also makes it unlawful for one of these companies to claim a government endorsement, to use a seal, an emblem, or a business name that suggests an official affiliation, to use an envelope designed to look like government mail, or to create a false deadline for paying the fee.
Now compare that to what actually arrives in the mailbox. The letters our clients bring in usually carry a different and much shorter disclaimer, the generic one that says the product or service has not been approved or endorsed by any governmental agency. That line satisfies a general rule about solicitations that look like government forms. It is not the disclosure this statute requires, because it never tells you the one fact that would end the transaction: the county sells you the same document for about $6.
Meanwhile the letter carries a respond by date, which is precisely the false urgency the statute prohibits. The county has no deadline for selling you a copy of your own recorded document.
How to read one of these in ten seconds
- Look for the county price. If the letter does not tell you what your county recorder charges, in a heavy black box at the top, it does not meet the standard California sets for this kind of offer.
- Read the return address. A post office box, a private mailbox with a suite number, or a company name assembled out of words like Records, Registry, Processing, or Services. County offices publish a street address and a .gov or .lacounty.gov web address.
- Look for a respond by date. Government offices send deadlines for taxes and hearings, not for buying a photocopy.
- Look at the amount. Anything above about $20 is many times what the county charges.
- Find the small print. Somewhere on the page it will say this is a solicitation and not a bill, and that you are under no obligation to pay. That sentence is doing a lot of work down there.
- When in doubt, call the county. In Los Angeles County that is the Registrar Recorder and County Clerk at lavote.gov, and nobody there will ask you to mail a check to a post office box.
If you already paid
Most people who pay simply receive an overpriced copy of a document that was already theirs. You did not sign anything away and your title is not affected. Still, it is worth doing four things:
- Stop the check if it has not cleared, then ask the company in writing for a refund and cite Business and Professions Code section 17537.10.
- File a complaint with the California Attorney General at oag.ca.gov. These cases are built out of volume, so a five minute complaint genuinely matters.
- Report it locally. Los Angeles County residents can reach the Department of Consumer and Business Affairs at (800) 593-8222 or homehelp@dcba.lacounty.gov.
- Report it federally. The Federal Trade Commission takes reports at reportfraud.ftc.gov, and because the offer arrived by mail, the Postal Inspection Service takes them at uspis.gov. Keep the envelope, the letter, and the coupon.
The letter you should actually worry about
There is a far more serious version of a stranger taking an interest in your deed, and it is worth knowing the difference. Deed fraud happens when someone forges a transfer of your property and records it. The overpriced copy service costs you $132 and your patience. A forged deed can cost you the house.
Los Angeles County runs a free defense against it. The Homeowner Notification Program mails you a copy of any document recorded against your property, and the newer Property Owner e Notification sends an email within about 48 hours of a recording. Both are free, both are worth the few minutes it takes to enroll, and you can start at lavote.gov. If a document you never signed is ever recorded against your home, the speed of that alert is what saves you.
The real question underneath the letter
Here is what we have noticed after years of these calls. People rarely call because they want a copy of a deed. They call because the letter made them realize they are not certain what their deed says, or whether the house ever made it into the trust in the first place. That is a much better question, and it is the one worth answering.
A copy of the deed costs $6. Knowing that title is held the way your estate plan assumes is what actually protects your family. The gaps we find most often are quiet ones:
- A trust was signed years ago, but the deed transferring the home into it was never recorded, so the house is still headed for probate.
- A refinance took the property out of the trust to satisfy the lender, and nobody put it back afterward.
- Title is held in joint tenancy, which quietly overrides what the trust says about who inherits.
- A marriage, a divorce, or a death changed who should be on title, and the deed never caught up. Our article on fixing an outdated trust covers what else drifts at the same time.
If you are not sure which of those describes your house, we can pull the recorded deed, read it against your plan, and tell you plainly whether anything needs to be fixed. For background on the choices involved, see how you hold title in California and our overview of the revocable living trust. And if the mail your family receives has you thinking about older relatives, our article on what to do when a parent is being scammed is the companion to this one.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. County fees and program details are current as of August 2026 and may change. If you received a solicitation you are unsure about, or you are not certain how your property is titled, contact MVP Law Group for a free, confidential consultation.