SB 255 notices, handled.
Print-ready notices. County-controlled mailing.
SentraDeed matches every recorded deed, deed of trust and mortgage to Assessor ownership each day and produces accessible, print-ready notice batches with a mail-house manifest. Your staff or mail house prints and mails them, within the 30 days Government Code §27297.7 allows.
4417 ELM GROVE WAY
DEMO CITY CA 95822
California law (Government Code §27297.7) requires the County Recorder to notify property owners when certain documents affecting their property are recorded.
If you did not sign or authorize this document, contact the Recorder's Office right away.
Why SB 255 matters
Every owner hears about it, within 30 days
Government Code §27297.7 asks each California county to run a recorder notification program by January 1, 2027. When a deed, quitclaim deed, mortgage or deed of trust is recorded, the people who signed it get a notice by mail. If a document was forged, the real owner finds out while there is still time to act, which is why owner notification matters against deed fraud and title theft.
- 30 daysFrom recording to a mailed notice.
- The signersNotified at the tax-bill address on file before the document was recorded.
- 4 document typesDeeds, quitclaim deeds, mortgages and deeds of trust. Government grantees are excluded.
Read SB 255: from legislation to action or the subsection-by-subsection guide. General information, not legal advice.
How SentraDeed works
From recorded document to county-mailed notice
SentraDeed does the matching and the paperwork. Your county keeps control of printing and mailing.
- 01 · County
Records in
The Recorder index and Assessor ownership file arrive daily by SFTP or upload, in the formats your systems already produce. How counties send files
- 02 · SentraDeed
Matching
Every deed, deed of trust and mortgage is matched to Assessor ownership. Missing APNs are read from the document image.
- 03 · County staff
Exceptions
Anything uncertain goes to staff, sorted by days left on the 30-day clock.
- 04 · SentraDeed
Print-ready batch
Accessible PDF/UA notices and a mail-house manifest, approved by staff before download.
- 05 · County
County mails
Your staff or mail house prints and mails the batch, then marks it mailed. SentraDeed does not mail notices.
- 06 · Optional
Resident alerts
Residents can sign up for free email alerts on properties and names they watch.
Who it's for
Built for the whole program
For county recorders
- Meet the 30-day notice window with a due date on every document
- Exceptions sorted by days left, with the document page shown
- Print-ready batches; your office keeps control of mailing
- Monthly reports with recording and mailing dates
For IT and security
- PostgreSQL row-level security per county, with an automated cross-tenant test
- Append-only, hash-chained audit log
- No owner names, addresses or subscriber emails in logs
- Hosted on AWS us-west-2 with U.S. data residency; single sign-on for staff
For residents
- A clear notice, in English or Spanish, when a document is recorded on their property
- Free alerts on properties and names they choose to watch
- Resident data is never sold; unsubscribe in one click
- Portal and notices checked with automated accessibility tests
Security and compliance
Security and compliance, built in
How SentraDeed protects county data and residents. Read the security page.
Hosting
AWS us-west-2, U.S. data residency; SFTP via AWS Transfer Family, email via Amazon SES
Encryption
HTTPS/TLS in transit, encryption at rest, and subscriber emails encrypted with a per-county key
Isolation
PostgreSQL row-level security per county, checked by an automated cross-tenant test
Access
Single sign-on with the county's identity provider (SAML/OIDC), role-based access, 30-minute idle timeout
Audit
Append-only, hash-chained audit log of every change; IDs only in application logs
Accessibility
Zero axe-core violations on every console and portal page; PDF/UA-1 notices validated with veraPDF
Matching
100% agreement with the reference answer key on the synthetic test set
AI Assist
Optional and off by default. The APN second reader read 98/98 APNs with 0 wrong-parcel notices on a synthetic set; the copilot is advisory and still under evaluation
Resources
Latest from the blog
Onboarding
Onboarding a county: files, formats and a go-live checklist
What a Recorder and Assessor office need to send, how the files are mapped without changing county systems, and a checklist for the weeks before the first notices mail.
Accessibility
Accessible notices: PDF/UA and WCAG for government mail
A notice that a screen reader can't read isn't much of a notice. What PDF/UA and WCAG 2.1 AA mean for SB 255 letters, portals and emails, and how to check them automatically instead of by eye.
Technology
Reading APNs from document images: accuracy without wrong notices
When the Recorder's index has no parcel number, the APN is usually printed on the document itself. How SentraDeed reads it from the image, scores its confidence, and sends every uncertain reading to a person instead of a mailbox.
FAQ
Questions counties ask us
What is SB 255?
SB 255 (Seyarto, Chapter 351, Statutes of 2025) added Section 27297.7 to the California Government Code. It asks each county to set up a recorder notification program by January 1, 2027. Under the program the county recorder mails a notice, within 30 days of recording, to the people who signed a covered document, at the tax-bill address on file before the document was recorded. This is general information, not legal advice.
Which documents need a notice?
Deeds, quitclaim deeds, mortgages and deeds of trust. Documents where a government agency is the grantee are excluded. Each county maps its own document-type codes (grant deed, trust transfer deed and so on) to these categories in SentraDeed.
Who mails the notices?
The county does. SentraDeed produces print-ready, accessible PDF/UA notice batches with a mail-house manifest and a cover sheet. County staff or the county's mail house print and mail them, then mark the batch mailed. SentraDeed does not mail notices.
How does owner notification help against deed fraud and title theft?
A forged deed can sit unnoticed in the public record. A notice mailed within 30 days to the address on file before recording lets the real owner find out quickly. SentraDeed also flags unexplained signers for fraud review while the notice still goes out. Notices and alerts are informational and are not a guarantee against fraud.
How do resident alerts work?
If the county offers them, residents sign up on a portal in English or Spanish to watch up to 10 properties or names. Property alerts are sent only after the parcel number is confirmed; name alerts go out the day the Recorder index loads. Alerts supplement, and do not replace, the mailed notice.
Is resident data sold?
No. The portal collects an email address, the watched properties or names, and a language preference. Emails are encrypted in the application with a per-county key, never sold or used for advertising, and every alert has a one-click unsubscribe link.
What does onboarding need?
A daily Recorder index and an Assessor ownership export in the formats your systems already produce, document images if APNs should be read from them, and your notice template as a Word file or fillable PDF. Sample files are mapped and tested in a parallel run before go-live. Timelines are agreed with each county.
Is SentraDeed accessible?
The staff console, resident portal and notices are built to WCAG 2.1 AA. Every console and portal page passes automated axe-core checks with zero violations, and every notice PDF is validated as PDF/UA-1 with veraPDF.
Answers are general information, not legal advice. See Disclosures.
One daily run, fully reconciled
Your offices keep exporting what they already export. SentraDeed reads it, decides which documents need a notice, and hands back a printable batch with a manifest. Printing and mailing stay with county staff.
How counties send files: SFTP folders, console upload and file layouts →
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Every outcome has a reason code
Thirteen rules run in a fixed order. The first one that applies sets the outcome, and every intermediate fact is stored with the decision, so staff and auditors can see exactly why a document did or did not get a notice.
received = covered + excluded
covered = noticed + review + open + dismissed
notices = Σ notices per noticed document
Everything the program requires
Built around §27297.7 and the way Recorder offices already work: a staff console, a notice pipeline, and an optional public alert portal.
All features
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Signer checks without false alarms
Common, legitimate reasons a signer isn’t the owner on the roll are recognized automatically, and each one is written into the document’s decision trail. Signers that stay unexplained go to Signer review, and the notice still goes out.
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Build your own alert sign-up page
Prefer the county website to the hosted portal? The County Alerts API lets your web server search properties and start a double opt-in sign-up, with the same rules: consent, confirmation email, no owner data, one-click unsubscribe.
AI that helps staff, never decides
The rules that decide who gets a notice are fixed, tested code, so every outcome can be explained and audited. AI Assist works alongside them on the cases that need a person, and every suggestion waits for staff to accept it. AI Assist is optional and off by default; each county decides whether to turn it on.
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Your county's data stays your county's
One platform serves many counties, and each is isolated at the application and database level. Read the security overview, or ask for the full version written for county reviewers.
Approve, print, mark mailed
Each morning's batch is one combined PDF, a mail manifest, and a cover sheet with counts and the oldest due date. Notices are sorted by ZIP for presort, with flagged signer-review notices kept at the end.
What the law asks of you
SB 255 (Seyarto), Chapter 351, Statutes of 2025, adds §27297.7 to the Government Code. It extends a recorded-document notification requirement to every California county except Los Angeles, which runs its own program under §27297.6.
Each subsection, covered
| §27297.7 | Requirement | How SentraDeed handles it |
|---|---|---|
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Covered documents
Each county maps its own document types (grant deed, trust transfer deed, interspousal transfer deed and so on) to these four categories. A type the system hasn't seen goes to staff to classify once.
Not covered
- Documents where a federal, state, county or city government, or a political subdivision, is the grantee (subsection c).
- Recognized document types outside the four categories, such as reconveyances and notices of default.
- Counties already running a notification program under §27297.6 (subsection g).
The product, step by step
Real screens from the running staff console, notice pipeline and resident portal, loaded with synthetic data for a fictional Demo County. Follow a day's work from the dashboard to a print-ready batch the county mails, then see what residents see.
Open the live resident portal → (English and Spanish)
No screenshot for this step yet.
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Documents for your review
Material for Recorder, Assessor, IT and procurement staff evaluating SentraDeed. Documents marked on request are shared after a short call so we can tailor them to your county.
Documents and downloads
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One job, done well
SentraDeed is recorder notification software built by Computer Systems Plus, Inc. (CSP) for California counties. It exists to help county Recorders meet Government Code §27297.7 without adding manual work to recording.
What we do
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What we don't
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From first call to go-live
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Built for how counties buy
SentraDeed is set up for public-sector purchasing: purchase orders accepted, Net 30 by default, W-9, certificate of insurance, security questionnaires, sole-source justification and RFP responses. Most of what your purchasing team needs is below.
The standard packet
Most purchasing offices ask for the same documents. We have them ready to send.
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How counties typically buy
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Public-agency terms
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See it run on your files
Tell us about your county and we'll schedule a walkthrough with your Recorder and Assessor teams.
One more step
Email [email protected] or call 559-251-7767 with your county and a good time, and we'll schedule a walkthrough with your team.
2134 North Fine Ave
Fresno, CA 93727 USA
- 5 to 10 days of sample Recorder and Assessor exports
- Data dictionaries or record layouts for each file
- Your list of document-type codes and APN format
- When each office delivers its daily file
See it run on your files
We'll walk your Recorder and Assessor teams through a full cycle: upload, run, resolve exceptions, approve a batch, and download notices. Send a few days of sample exports and we'll show the results on your own data.
One more step
Email [email protected] or call 559-251-7767 with your county and a good time, and we'll schedule a walkthrough with your team.
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