Legal Definitions - Notice statute

A notice statute is a type of recording act that determines the priority of title for a property. It gives priority to the party who obtained the claim most recently, but only if they did not have any notice of an earlier claim. If there was an earlier recorded claim, it gives notice to the whole world.

Let's say John buys a piece of land from Jane, but Jane had already sold the same land to Mary a week earlier. Mary's claim was recorded in the public records, but John did not have any notice of it. In this case, the notice statute would give priority to John's claim because he did not have any notice of Mary's earlier claim.

Another example could be if a person buys a car from someone who had stolen it. If the true owner of the car had already reported it stolen and the report was recorded in the public records, the notice statute would give priority to the true owner's claim because the buyer had notice of the earlier claim.