General Information

Register of Deeds is a Constitutional office established by the State Legislature as the custodian of legal documents pertaining to real property.  These documents include Warranty Deeds, Deeds of Trust, Releases, Powers of Attorney, Liens and other miscellaneous documents designated by state law to be recorded by the Register of Deeds. The Register is elected by the people and serves a four year term.

 In 1999, the Register's office implemented a new computer imaging system for recording, indexing, storage, and retrieval of all documents.  There are currently approximately 7 million pages of documents on file in the Register of Deeds office.  With the new system, the office has the capability of putting every recorded page on an imaging system. On this system, an image of any recorded page may be called up and viewed on a screen within a matter of a few seconds.  A paper copy of the instrument can be generated if necessary with the press of a button.

Excess Fees
Recording fees are initially retained by the Register's office, which pays all of its payroll expenses out of its own collections. The remainder is remitted to the Knox County General fund on a quarterly basis, to benefit schools and other vital projects.   The County fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30.

Fiscal Year

94 - 95: $ 97,000
95 - 96: $ 240,000
96 - 97: $ 324,000
97 - 98: $ 421,000
98 - 99: $ 632,000
99 - 00: $ 393,000
00 - 01: $ 652,000
01 - 02: $ 1,604,000
02 - 03: $ 2,050,000
03 - 04: $ 2,467,000
04 - 05: $ 1,767,000
05 - 06: $ 1,840,000
06 - 07: $ 1,621,000
07 - 08: $ 1,364,000
08 - 09: $ 719,000
09 - 10: $ 711,700