Budget and fees
Budgeting an SB 255 program: postage, printing and staff time
A simple worksheet for estimating what a recorder notification program costs: how many notices you will mail, what each one costs to print and post, and how much staff time exceptions and phone calls take. With a worked example you can replace with your own numbers.
Every budget conversation about SB 255 starts with the same question: how many letters? Everything else (postage, paper, staff time, the fee under subsection (f)) follows from that number. This worksheet walks through the estimate in the order a budget analyst would.
Step 1: covered documents per month
From the recording system, count last year's documents by type and keep the codes your county treats as deeds, quitclaim deeds, mortgages and deeds of trust (see Which documents does SB 255 cover?). Remove government-grantee documents. Use a 12-month average, then look at the busiest month, because staffing has to handle peaks.
Step 2: notices per document
The notice goes to each party who executed the document. Married owners, co-owners and trustees mean many documents produce two or more notices; where several signers share one tax-bill address, a county may choose to combine them. Your ratio will typically land somewhere between 1 and 2 notices per document. A few weeks of parallel running on your own files gives the real figure.
Step 3: cost per notice
- Postage at the class and presort level you will use.
- Paper, envelope and print, or the mail house's all-in per-piece price.
- Returned mail handling, if you track returns.
Step 4: staff time
Most documents should flow straight through. Time goes into:
- Exceptions: missing or retired APNs, missing pre-recording addresses, new document codes. Measure the exception rate during the parallel run and the average minutes per case.
- Daily batch approval and handing the batch to print and mail.
- Resident calls. Expect a spike in the first months, as residents receive a letter they have never seen before. A clear notice and a good web page reduce it. See our resident explainer for the questions people ask.
A worked example
These numbers are illustrative only. Replace every one with your own.
| Line | Assumption | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Covered documents | from last year's index | 2,000 |
| Notices | 1.5 per document | 3,000 |
| Postage, print, supplies | $1.00 per notice, all-in | $3,000 |
| Exceptions | 5% of documents, 10 minutes each | ~17 hours |
| Batch approval and mail handoff | 20 minutes per business day | ~7 hours |
| Resident calls | 2% of notices, 6 minutes each | ~6 hours |
In this example the program needs roughly 30 staff hours a month plus mailing costs and software. A county ten times this size scales the mailing line almost linearly, but exception time depends heavily on data quality, which is where an APN requirement and good file mapping pay off.
Step 5: offsets
- A fee under subsection (f), capped at reasonable cost and collectible 120 days after it is established and announced. See Setting an SB 255 recording fee.
- Fewer exceptions through an APN requirement. See Requiring APNs on page one.
- Email alerts do not replace the mailed notice, but they can reduce calls by giving residents information earlier.
Measure, then budget
Estimates are a starting point. The strongest budget request is built from a parallel run on the county's own files: actual documents, actual notices, actual exception rate. SentraDeed's monthly statistics report gives all three, and the transaction report shows recording and mailing dates for every notice.
Not legal advice. This article is general information about California Government Code §27297.7 and county recording operations. It is not legal advice. Consult your county counsel about how the statute applies to your office.
