Article 9 and lien-related legislation
Mississippi: House Bill 493 was introduced on 1/10/2025 to provide that the department of revenue shall not take action to enforce a tax lien enrolled in the state tax lien registry more than 10 years after re-enrollment. This would apply to liens enrolled on or after 7/1/2025.
New York: Senate Bill 2131 was introduced on 1/15/2025 to provide for an employee’s lien for wage claims. The claimant must file a notice of lien and a UCC financing statement to perfect the lien.
Oklahoma: Senate Bill 988 was pre-filed on 1/16/2025 to transfer responsibility for the Central Filing System under the Food Security Act from the secretary of state to the Oklahoma County Clerk. If enacted, Effective Financing Statements under the Food Security Act would be filed with the Oklahoma County Clerk, not the secretary of state as is the case under current law. The bill would also make conforming amendments to UCC Article 9.
Oklahoma: Senate Bill 1018 was pre-filed on 1/16/2025 to create a CO2 victim lien for damages caused by the rupture or other release of CO2 from a pipeline, facility, or sequestration site. The lien would be perfected by filing a UCC1 financing statement in the county clerk’s office where the defined CO2 “kill zone” is located.
Other uniform laws legislation (includes the 2022 amendments to the UCC with UCC Article 12 – Controllable Electronic Records)
Arkansas: Senate Bill 47 was introduced on 1/13/2025 to define “Central Bank Digital Currency” and exclude it from the definition of “money” and “deposit account.”
Massachusetts: Senate Bill 744 was introduced on 1/14/2025 to enact the 2022 Amendments to the UCC, including UCC Article 12, Controllable Electronic Records, and related amendments.
Mississippi: House Bill 170 was introduced on 1/10/2025 to amend various sections of the UCC with respect to investment securities, including revisions to the jurisdiction of a securities intermediary and entitlement holder.
Mississippi: House Bill 557 was introduced on 1/15/2025 to prohibit government entities from using Central Bank Digital Currency. Also excludes Central Bank Digital Currency from the definition of “money” in the state’s version of UCC § 1-201.
New Hampshire House Bill 427 (LSR 602) was introduced on 1/9/2025 to make an amendment to the state’s version of UCC § 8-110(b). The amendment would provide that New Hampshire law, not the jurisdiction of a securities intermediary, determines choice of law.
New York: Senate Bill 1840 was introduced on 1/14/2025 to enact the 2022 Amendments to the UCC, including UCC Article 12, Controllable Electronic Records, and related amendments.
Oklahoma: House Bill 1741 was pre-filed on 1/16/2025 to amend the state’s version of UCC § 8-110(b) to provide that law of the entitlement holder’s jurisdiction governs.
Oklahoma: Senate Bill 1085 was pre-filed on 1/16/2025 to make amendments to the state’s version of UCC § 9-343.
Oregon: Senate Bill 167 was pre-filed on 1/13/2025 to enact the 2022 Amendments to the UCC, including UCC Article 12, Controllable Electronic Records, and related amendments.
Emerging technology legislation (blockchain, distributed ledger technology, cryptocurrency, etc.)
Arkansas: Senate Bill 60 was introduced on 1/14/2025 to prohibit digital asset mining operations within a 30-mile radius of a military facility.
Massachusetts: Senate Bill 422 was introduced on 1/13/2025 to establish a Commonwealth Strategic Bitcoin reserve and authorize the state treasurer to invest in digital assets.
New Hampshire: House Bill 639 was introduced on 1/16/2025 to adopt the Blockchain Basic Laws Act. The Act provides that no government unit may prohibit, restrict, or otherwise impair the ability of an individual to use or hold digital assets. The bill would also protect digital asset mining and establish a blockchain dispute docket in the superior courts.
North Dakota: House Bill 1239 was introduced on 1/13/2025 to place restrictions on the ability of government to regulate individuals and businesses engaged in data mining.
Oklahoma: House Bill 1203 was pre-filed on 1/15/2025 to establish the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Act. The Act would authorize the state treasurer to invest in qualifying digital assets.
Oklahoma: House Bill 1891 was pre-filed on 1/16/2025 to authorize the state treasurer to invest in precious metals, qualifying digital assets, and certain stablecoins from certain state funds.
Oregon: House Bill 2071 was pre-filed on 1/13/2025 to prohibit state and local government from imposing restrictions on the ability of a person to accept digital assets in payment for goods and services or restricting certain other types of activities related to digital assets.
South Carolina: Senate Bill 163 was introduced on 1/14/2025 to prohibit government from using or testing central bank digital currency. The bill also provides that government may not subject digital assets to disparate tax treatment and otherwise provides for the regulation of digital mining businesses.
Texas: Senate Bill 778 was introduced on 1/14/2025 to establish a strategic bitcoin reserve within the state treasury.
Business organization legislation
Georgia: House Bill 15 was pre-filed on 1/13/2025 to revise procedures regarding articles of incorporation for a credit union.
Massachusetts: House Bill 2389 was introduced on 1/16/2025 to require that LLCs disclose beneficial owner information to the secretary of state.
Mississippi: House Bill 342 was introduced on 1/10/2025 to adopt the Mississippi Benefit Corporation Act. This act would allow corporations to operate for a specific public benefit but such entities would remain subject to the Business Corporations Act or Professional Corporations Act for other purposes.
New York: Assembly Bill 1506 was introduced on 1/10/2025 to require a rent registration statement filed with the state division of housing and community renewal on behalf of an LLC to include a list of beneficial owners and the proportion of each owner’s interest in the LLC.
Oregon: Senate Bill 164 was pre-filed on 1/13/2025 to update and modernize laws that govern the formation, governance, operations, and conversion of LLCs in the state and relations among members, managers, and third parties with respect to limited liability companies.
Notary legislation
Montana: House Bill 165 was introduced on 1/10/2025 to eliminate the notary requirement for transfer of motor vehicle titles.
Oklahoma: House Bill 1578 was pre-filed on 1/16/2025 to increase the criminal penalty from a misdemeanor to a felony for a notary that performs a notarial act without first making in good faith the required determination of the identity of the person appearing before them. The bill would also increase the fine applicable in such cases from $1,000 to $5,000.
Oklahoma: Multiple bills, House Bill 2265, House Bill 2538, House Bill 2540, and House Bill 2541 were pre-filed on 1/16/2025 to adopt the Notaries Public Modernization Act of 2025. The full text of each bill is not yet available.
Oklahoma: Senate Bill 1028 was pre-filed on 1/16/2025 to require a national criminal history check, including fingerprints, of all notary commission applicants. The bill also increases application fees and bond filing fees for notaries.
Oregon: House Bill 2951 was pre-filed on 1/13/2025 to require the secretary of state to create an online database of notarial acts and to require notaries to put data about notarial acts into the database.
Oregon: House Bill 2952 was pre-filed on 1/13/2025 to require a notarial certificate to include the type of document and number of pages in the document and, if applicable, the representative capacity of the person for whom the notarial act was performed. The bill also includes real estate recording provisions described in the following section.
Real estate recording-related legislation
Arkansas: House Bill 104 was introduced on 1/13/2025 to criminalize unlawful squatting.
Arkansas: Senate Bill 69 was introduced on 1/15/2025 to require that a deed or other instrument that conveys an interest in real property without warranty be recorded only by the recorder of the county in which the real property is located. The bill would also require each county recorder to create a form that a property owner may fill out to prohibit a purported conveyance by deed or instrument without warranty unless certain conditions are met, and to provide that the recorder shall not record such a deed or instrument unless all requirements are met.
Hawaii: Senate Bill 206 was pre-filed on 1/13/2025 to prohibit nonresident aliens and businesses and trusts significantly controlled by nonresident aliens from acquiring certain residential property in the state, except as otherwise provided by law.
Hawaii: Senate Bill 245 was pre-filed on 1/13/2025 to provide that no corporation, limited liability company, trust, partnership, or limited partnership either directly or indirectly, shall own, purchase, acquire, or otherwise obtain or lease any agricultural lands in the state.
Hawaii: Senate Bill 469 was pre-filed on 1/16/2025 to increase the conveyance tax for properties valued at over $6,000,000 to fund the Affordable Homeownership Revolving Fund.
Illinois: House Bill 1409 was introduced on 1/16/2025 to provide an expedited process for the removal of unauthorized persons from vacant residential property.
Maryland: House Bill 347 was introduced on 1/12/2025 to make mostly technical changes to the real estate recording laws to include electronic recording references. Also fails to correct a reference to former UCC Article 9 § 9-402(9) for indication that a financing statement is to be filed in the real estate records.
Massachusetts: Two bills, House Bill 814 and House Bill 852, were introduced on 1/13/2025 to provide that defects, irregularities, or omissions in a recorded instrument purporting to convey real estate or any interest therein shall be effective unless a proceeding is commenced within 10 years to address the defects.
Massachusetts: House Bill 854 was introduced on 1/13/2025 to adopt the Real Estate Title Protection Act. The bill would set time limits on recordation of assignments of mortgage and certain deeds following execution.
Massachusetts: House Bill 1112 was introduced on 1/14/2025 to authorize cities and towns to impose a real estate transfer fee to fund affordable housing. A similar initiative was introduced the following day as Senate Bill 1216.
Massachusetts: House Bill 2650 was introduced on 1/16/2025 to require the secretary of state to maintain a record of all requests to access a property deed and to notify the property owner when a request has been made to access a deed.
New Hampshire: House Bill 623 was introduced on 1/16/2025 to restrict the acquisition of single-family and multi-family housing to natural persons with certain exceptions. The bill would require any non-natural person acquiring such housing under an exception to register and file reports with the secretary of state.
New York: Assembly Bill 1820 was introduced on 1/14/2025 to require the removal of unlawful restrictive covenants prior to the sale of real property.
North Dakota: House Bill 1208 was introduced on 1/10/2025 to amend provisions related to foreign ownership of real property. The bill would prohibit a foreign country of concern or a foreign entity of concern from owning real property near a military base.
North Dakota: House Bill 1305 was introduced on 1/13/2025 to provide remedies for owners to remove a person unlawfully occupying residential property under certain conditions and would make it a felony to fraudulently sell or lease residential property or unlawfully occupy the property under certain conditions.
Oklahoma: House Bill 2119 was pre-filed on 1/16/2025 to adopt the Oklahoma Uniform Easement Relocation Act of 2025. The bill contains recording requirements for certain documents to be recorded prior to the easement relocation.
Oklahoma: Senate Bill 925 was pre-filed on 1/16/2025 to create the felony offense of deed fraud. The bill would also require a county clerk to post a notice regarding deed fraud and provide a process for judicial review of fraudulent documents.
Oklahoma: Senate Bill 961 was pre-filed on 1/16/2025 to require a county clerk to notify the previous deed holder upon the filing of a deed. In addition, the county clerk would be required to provide an immediate alert option for a deedholder to place a trigger within the deed that would require immediate notification of the deedholder if anyone attempts to record subsequent documents and provides that if the deedholder contests the validity of the document, the clerk shall cease the recording process and contact the district attorney.
Oklahoma: Senate Bill 978 was pre-filed on 1/16/2025 to modify the margin requirements on documents to be recorded.
Oklahoma: Senate Bill 982 was pre-filed on 1/16/2025 to prohibit any alien or non-citizen to own real property in the state, either directly or indirectly through a business entity or trust. The bill also would require a deed or lease to include as an exhibit an affidavit by the purchaser that the person acquiring the real property is doing so in compliance with the requirements of this law, and that no funding source is being used in violation of state or federal law.
Oregon: House Bill 2106 was pre-filed on 1/13/2025 to require the attorney general to adopt and maintain a list of foreign adversaries who are ineligible to receive conveyances of certain land, mineral or water interests. The bill would also provide that a deed, sales agreement, or other instrument to a person on the attorney general’s list is void.
Oregon: House Bill 2952 was pre-filed on 1/13/2025 to require the county clerk to include in the indirect general index the PIN and names and commission numbers of notaries public. The bill also provides that a county clerk may refuse to accept a document that has any characteristic suggesting it may be fraudulent. The bill also includes notary provisions described in the section above.
South Carolina: Senate Bill 69 was introduced on 1/14/2025 to make it a felony to (i) unlawfully occupy or trespass upon a residential dwelling and intentionally cause damages in excess of $1,000; or (ii) advertise or list property for sale or rend knowing that the purported seller has no lawful ownership or leasehold interest in the property. Also would make it a misdemeanor to, with the intent to remain upon real property, knowingly and willfully presents to another person, a false document, deed, or other instrument purporting to convey real property.
South Carolina: Senate Bill 239 was introduced on 1/16/2025 to provide a remedy for property owners for the immediate removal of unlawful occupant of property under certain circumstances.
Utah: Senate Bill 104 was pre-filed on 1/12/2025 to clarify the recording requirements for boundary adjustments.
Virginia: Senate Bill 1270 was introduced on 1/8/2025 to require localities to establish a property alert notification system in the local land records office that allows a person to enroll real property owned by the person in the system. The property alert notification system would notify the enrolled owner of the recording of any document describing, affecting, or purporting to affect the enrolled property. This appears similar to House Bill 2396, which was reported last week.
Other items and legislation of interest
Arizona: Senate Bill 1062 was introduced on 1/13/2025 to define “legal tender” to include specie and cryptocurrency. “Specie” is defined as coins having precious metal content.
Arizona: Senate Bill 1095 was introduced on 1/14/2025 to exclude Central Bank Digital Currency from the definition of “legal tender.”
Massachusetts: House Bill 1679 was introduced on 1/15/2025 to establish an internet bill of rights.
Massachusetts: House Bill 2135 was introduced on 1/15/2025 to adopt the Massachusetts Consumer Data Privacy Act.
Mississippi: House Bill 394 was introduced on 1/10/2025 to establish specie and bullion as legal tender.
Washington: House Bill 1319 was introduced on 1/14/2025 to enact a wealth tax on the ownership of stocks, bonds, and other financial intangible property.
Note that this update provides only a short summary of the listed bills, which are often lengthy and complex. It is not intended to include all potentially relevant provisions of each bill. For full details, please review the bill on the applicable state legislative website.
