race statute
A race statute is a type of recording act which gives priority of title to the first party who records their claim to a piece of property, even if that party had notice of an earlier unrecorded claim on the property.
A small minority of states, including Delaware and North Carolina currently have race statutes.
Race statutes encourage prompt recordation and make priority of title easy to determine but may reward unscrupulous behavior.
For example: A purchases a plot of land from O. The next day, B also purchases that plot of land from O. B records their claim before A. Under a race statute, B’s claim to the plot would trump A’s, even if B knew at the time of purchase that A had already paid for the plot.
To avoid this outcome, most states have adopted either notice statutes or race-notice statutes.
[Last reviewed in June of 2025 by the Wex Definitions Team]
Wex