Should all recording fees be separated from an inside or outside payoff and put in the Recording Fee section?

We receive payoffs from other institutions with the recording fee added into the payoff. We are being told to separate the $30.00 satisfaction fee out from the total pay off amount and list the $30.00 in Recording Fees and the remaining in the Payoff section.

Just wondering how other institutions are handling this.
Thanks

Who is telling you this?
Are you sure the $30 is recording fees and not a doc prep & recording fee combination?

I'm interested in the responses you get because I'd not given thought to the idea of separating it out especially since not all payoffs have a recording fee shown as a line item in the payoff amount.

It sounds like a release fee and if it's part of the payoff and itemized, then I would agree it should be listed as a release [recording fee] because public officials will be the ultimate recipient.

Yes, the majority of our payoffs have an itemized release fee.
The processors will be looking for the itemization to fill out the CD properly.

Thank you for your response.

I would like to follow up on this topic. We may not receive payoff figures until right before the loan closes, so we may not know if the quote will include a satisfaction/release fee until we're ready to prepare the Closing Disclosure. How do you know what to disclose on the Loan Estimate? Do you assume that if there's a payoff that there will also be a recording fee? I understand that if we don't learn about a prior lien until we receive the title report that we then have a changed circumstance and can send a revised LE. I'm curious as to what other institutions do when there's a payoff but the breakout of it is unknown. Thank you.

Anytime we are paying off a prior lien, we include an estimate for a release fee.

We don't itemize the release fee - should we be? It seems like it'd be an issue when you get a payoff that doesn't have it itemized. Would you itemize a payoff request fee if it's thrown into a payoff?

The problem with the release fee is that it is ultimately paid to public officials and not the company you are paying off, unlike a fee to prepare a payoff.

If it's not itemized, it just falls off of the CD.