St. Lucie County Official Records and Deeds

St. Lucie County deeds, mortgages, liens, plats and tax deeds are searched free through the Official Records search on the Clerk of the Circuit Court's Public Search page, which covers recordings from 1980 forward plus older deed books.

The Clerk Public Search page describes the Official Records search as a place to view and download deeds, liens, marriage licenses, mortgages, plats and tax deeds, and lists a separate Plat Search for recorded and unrecorded plat records. Users can register for an electronic access account, which the St. Lucie County Clerk says brings added search capability and lets users download public access mail merge data.

Coverage depends on the year. The St. Lucie County Recording Department page states that deed records from 1905 through 1960 and Official Records from 1980 to the present can now be searched online, while Official Records from 1960 to 1979 are marked Coming Soon. That gap matters for anyone tracing a title back through the 1960s and 1970s in St. Lucie County: those books still have to be requested, and the same page directs older records and more in-depth searches to the Research Department at 772-462-6930. State law sets the floor for what must be online: section 28.2221, Florida Statutes requires each county recorder to post an index of official records beginning no later than January 1, 1990, together with a document requisition point for ordering images or copies, and to make document images retrievable electronically by January 1, 2006.

The court case search guide for St. Lucie County covers court files; this guide stays with recorded land and lien documents.

An official record in St. Lucie County is any instrument the Clerk records under state law, from deeds and mortgages to judgments, lis pendens, plats, death certificates and military discharges, all kept in one numbered series.

Under section 28.222, Florida Statutes, the clerk of the circuit court is the recorder for the county and must record all instruments in one general series called Official Records. Each filing gets a register entry recording its number, when it was filed down to the hour, what type of instrument it is and who the parties are, and the clerk keeps an alphabetical index of every instrument, direct and inverse. In St. Lucie County that means a search by grantor or grantee name in the Clerk's index pulls up every instrument tied to that name, whether it is a warranty deed, a satisfaction of mortgage or a claim of lien.

The Recording Department page lists what the St. Lucie County series holds: liens, plats, certificates of title, mortgages, lis pendens, marriage licenses, deeds, judgments, death certificates, military discharges and more. Section 28.222 also lists notices of federal tax liens, powers of attorney relating to recorded instruments and certified copies of bankruptcy petitions among the instruments a clerk records. A veteran's discharge is recorded without cost to the veteran, with the service charge paid instead by the board of county commissioners, which in St. Lucie County is the County Commission.

A St. Lucie County deed is recorded by delivering or mailing the signed, witnessed and notarized original with the fees and a stamped return envelope to the Clerk's Recording Department in Fort Pierce, or by sending it electronically.

The St. Lucie County Recording Department says title to real property changes when a new deed from the current owners (the grantor) to the new owners (the grantee) is recorded. The deed must be signed by the present owners, have two witnesses to the grantor's signature, and be notarized and embossed with a notary seal and the notary's commission expiration date. All deeds must contain the grantor's and grantee's addresses. Every document presented for recording needs a self-addressed, stamped envelope for its return, and documents can be delivered to the Clerk's main office or mailed to the Recording Department at P.O. Box 700, Fort Pierce, FL 34954. The Recording Department sits at 201 South Indian River Drive, 4th Floor, Fort Pierce, answers at (772) 462-6900 and keeps weekday hours of 8 A.M. to 5 P.M. except on holidays.

State law adds layout rules that trip up home-drafted deeds. Section 695.26, Florida Statutes bars the clerk from recording an instrument affecting real property unless each signer's name is printed beneath the signature with a post-office address, the name and address of the person who prepared it appear on it, each witness's name and address are printed, the notary's name is printed under the notary signature, and a 3-inch by 3-inch space at the top right of page one and a 1-inch by 3-inch space on each later page are left blank for the clerk. The rule does not apply to wills, plats, court orders, instruments executed outside Florida or instruments executed before July 1, 1991. The St. Lucie County Clerk states that it cannot provide legal advice or help complete forms, so a deed is prepared before it reaches the counter.

After recording, the St. Lucie County Clerk says documents are indexed, verified and scanned before they go back in the mail, and the normal turnaround is seven to ten days (Official Records FAQs).

Recording a deed in St. Lucie County costs $10.00 for the first page and $8.50 for each additional page, plus documentary stamp tax of $0.70 per $100 of property valuation on deeds.

These amounts come from the Official Records part of the St. Lucie County Clerk fee schedule, which cites FS 28.24 and warns that fees are set and subject to change by the Florida Legislature, so the amount due should be verified on the day of payment. The schedule lists cash, money orders and cashier's checks as accepted, adds a service charge to credit card transactions, and names Family Relations, Civil and Probate as the divisions that take personal checks.

Copies of St. Lucie County records up to 14 by 8.5 inches are $1.00 a page and a records search is $2.00 for each year searched under the All Court Divisions part of the same fee schedule. The Clerk also sells dial-in access to public records at $100.00 a month for the first line, the Official Records index on CD-ROM for $10.00 and images of an Official Records book on CD-ROM for $25.00 per book.

Yes, the St. Lucie County Clerk accepts e-recorded deeds, mortgages, assignments and satisfactions of mortgage at any hour, but several document types still need paper handling.

The St. Lucie County Clerk e-recording page describes e-recording as the secure online submission of documents for recording in the Official Records of St. Lucie County, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with the sender keeping the original documents. The types that cannot be e-recorded include bonds, certificates of compliance, declarations of condominium, foreign judgments, lis pendens, military separation or discharge papers, notices of homestead, notices of bond, notices of contest of lien, notices of interest in land, plats, transfers of lien to a cash or surety bond and miscellaneous documents.

Format rules apply to both channels in St. Lucie County. The e-recording page states that filed documents must have one-inch margins on all sides and that recorded documents need a blank 3-inch by 3-inch space at the top right of the first page and a blank 1-inch by 3-inch space on later pages, citing Florida Supreme Court Order SC14-721; documents that do not comply are resubmitted on the Clerk's request. Those blank boxes match the space reserved for the clerk in section 695.26.

St. Lucie County's online Official Records omit images of military discharges, death certificates and family, juvenile and probate court files, and owners can ask the Clerk to redact Social Security, bank or card numbers that slipped into a recording.

Section 28.2221(5)(a), Florida Statutes bars a county recorder from placing on a public website any image of a military discharge, a death certificate or a court file in a case under Florida's family law, juvenile procedure or probate rules, along with information exempt under section 119.071. The St. Lucie County Recording Department warns filers not to record documents containing Social Security, bank account or debit and credit card numbers unless expressly required by law, notes that such numbers may become public, and offers the Redaction Request for Confidentiality form, also linked from the Public Search page, for public employees who qualify and for any visible confidential number.

Removal requests to the St. Lucie County Clerk must be notarized, state the statutory basis and confirm eligibility, and grantor, grantee or party names stay in the Official Records index unless the name includes a street address, as in a trust or LLC (Recording Department notice). Requests go by mail to P.O. Box 700, Fort Pierce, FL 34954, or in person at the Fort Pierce and St. Lucie West locations. Restricted documents can still be viewed by creating an account or visiting the office, and the Clerk's E-Certify service produces tamperproof, reusable certified PDFs of any official record viewable online.

After a deed is recorded in St. Lucie County, owners should check whether their property tax exemptions are affected and can sign up for the Clerk's free Property Fraud Alert to hear about any later recording in their name.

The St. Lucie County Recording Department repeats that recording a new deed may impact property tax exemptions and sends owners to the Property Appraiser, which the St. Lucie County Property Appraiser guide covers. The same page explains two common follow-ups: adding or removing a name on a deed always takes a new recorded document, and when a married couple owns property jointly and one spouse dies, recording a certified copy of the death certificate lets the Property Appraiser change the tax roll to show the survivor as sole owner.

The St. Lucie County Property Fraud Alert page describes a free service that detects documents being recorded and sends email and text notifications within 24 hours to registered users, with a link to the recorded document. The Clerk reports over 18,000 subscribers as of 7/1/2026, and the page notes that the Florida Legislature passed HB 1419 in 2023 giving property owners the right to open a court case to restore their property rights. An alert about a document the owner recognizes needs no action. Last verified: October 22, 2026, by rereading the St. Lucie County Clerk's Recording Department, e-recording, fraud alert, Public Search and fee pages and Florida Statutes 28.222, 28.2221 and 695.26.