Section 1400.10  Definitions

For purposes of this Part, the following definitions shall apply:

"County Recorder" or "Recorder" − the county land records official, who is the County Recorder, County Clerk and Recorder or land records official designated by the County Board.

"Data Fields" − the discreet pieces of information contained in a document that are transcribed into the corresponding County Recorder's electronic document index. Examples are document type, consideration, grantee, grantor, legal description, street address, city, state and zip code. 

"Document Rejection" − the act of the County Recorder refusing to accept a document for recording, based on the submitter having not met some statutory or county requirement.

"Document Submission" − the act of submitting a document to the County Recorder for recording.  

"Document Type Definition" or "DTD" − a document created using the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) that defines a unique markup language (such as XML or XHTML).  A DTD includes a list of tags, attributes and rules of usage.

"Electronic Acceptance" − the act of the County Recorder accepting a submitted document for recording through electronic means.

"Electronic Delivery Process" − the process that begins with preparing the document for transmission to the Recorder, the transmission and reception at the County Recorder's office.

"Electronic Document" − a document that is received by a County Recorder, in an electronic form, meeting the document standards of this Part and the county.

"Electronic Notary" − a notary acknowledgement of a document, by means of an electronic notary signature and stamp.

"Electronic Recording" or "E-recording" − the process of a County Recorder accepting, recording and indexing a document in an electronic form instead of by paper submission.

"Electronic Recording Submission" − the act of submitting a document to the County Recorder via electronic means.

"Electronic Recording System" − the computer program, and the hardware components that host it, that receives electronic documents for recording.

"Electronic Signature" − an electronic sound, symbol or process attached to or logically associated with a document and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the document. Electronic signatures must meet any statutory requirement of the State of Illinois for such signatures.

"E-Recording Submitter" − the party sending a document to the County Recorder using electronic means.  The submitter may be the same entity as the E-Recording Submitting Vendor.

"E-Recording Submitting Vendor" – the entity that offers the service to an E-Recording Submitter, providing the software and/or electronic system to transmit a document, via electronic means, to the County Recorder.

"Formatting" − the appearance attributes of the document.

"Index" − the electronic catalog of information about documents in the Recorder's office.

"Land Records System" − the computer software or electronic system used by a Recorder's office to index and store both document images and searchable attributes that identify the document.

"Land Records System Vendor" − an entity outside the Recorder's office that programs or produces the Land Records System for the Recorder.  This entity can be a state, county or private enterprise.

"Metadata" − commonly described as "data about data".  Metadata is used to locate and manage information resources by classifying those resources and by capturing information not inherent in the resource.

"Open Architecture" − the attributes of the reception software that are public and discernable by the submitting software vendor.

"Paper Submissions" – the documents submitted to the County Recorder printed on paper or other physical media.

"Portable Document Format" or "PDF" − a file format created by Adobe Systems, Inc. that uses the PostScript printer description language to create documents.  PDF files capture the appearance of the original document, can store both text and images, are difficult to modify and can be rendered with free, cross-platform viewer software.

"Portal" – a website considered as an entry point to other websites, often by being or providing access to useful content and/or functioning as a gateway to other web locations.

"PRIA" − the Property Records Industry Association.

"Receiving Party" – The County Recorder's office that receives the e-recording document for recording and the entity that receives the electronic document as recorded or rejected from the County Recorder.

"Reception" − the receiving of the document in the County Recorder's office.

"Recording Fee" − any fee imposed by statute or county ordinance, charged by the County Recorder for recording a document.

"Submitter" or "Submitting Party" − the entity that originates the e-recording document or delivers it to the Transmitting Party for transmission to the County Recorder.

"Tagged Image File Format" or "TIFF" − a non-proprietary, defined format for storing images.

"Transfer Declaration" or "Form PTAX-203" – the sales disclosure document required by Illinois statute to accompany the recording of a deed.

"Transfer Tax" − a tax imposed on the privilege of transferring title to real estate located in Illinois, on the privilege of transferring a beneficial interest in real property located in Illinois, and on the privilege of transferring a controlling interest in a real estate entity owning property in Illinois, pursuant to Section 31-10 of the Real Estate Transfer Tax Law.

"Transmitting Party" − the entity that transmits the document to the County Recorder.  This can be the submitter, but is usually a service that specializes in transmitting electronic documents to a County Recorder.