Legal Definitions - notice act

A notice act is a type of recording act that gives priority to the person who has the most recent valid claim and purchased without knowledge of an earlier, unrecorded claim. This means that if two people claim ownership of the same property, the person who bought the property without knowing about the other claim will have priority.

For example, let's say that John sells his house to Jane, but he forgets to record the sale with the county. Later, John sells the same house to Bob, who records the sale with the county. In a notice state, Bob would have priority over Jane because he purchased the property without knowledge of Jane's claim.

About half of the states in the US have notice statutes, which are designed to protect innocent buyers from losing their property to someone who had an earlier, unrecorded claim.