Recorded covenants for title and escrow, with every recording number

Published October 21, 2026.

How does a title examiner get the recorded covenants on a parcel?

Setback reads every recorded declaration, covenant and amendment in the counties it covers, and reads the new recordings every night. Search a parcel and you get the recorded chain with each auditor's file number, written out in Schedule B form, plus each rule in plain English with the clause it came from and its page. It fits a file in a covered county. It is not a title plant: it holds covenants, not deeds, liens or easements, and it does not replace the examination.

What you get

  • The recorded chain on the parcel, declaration first and each amendment under it, with recording dates and auditor's file numbers, in the Schedule B form, copied in one click.
  • Each rule in plain English, with the sentence quoted from the recorded page and its page number, so a disclosure or a summary can cite the recorded wording.
  • A preview with no account: the documents on record and the first three rules. Enough to confirm coverage on a parcel.
  • On Pro, a CSV of parcel numbers returns the chain and the rules for each, a report can be shared by link with a client, and the API serves the same data to your own systems.

What the report shows

The report opens with the recorded instruments: every covenant document recorded against the parcel, with its type, recording date and auditor's file number, in the order recorded. Under them, the covenant exceptions written out in the form Washington plants use, one per declaration, with its amendments as modifications.

Each rule is one row: the subject, the rule in plain English, and the sentence quoted from the recorded page with its page number and recording number. The quote is the recorded wording, not a paraphrase. A rule the scan was too faint to read with confidence is marked uncertain and left out of the count.

The county recorder's index is read every night, so a declaration or amendment recorded this week is in the report next morning. Each county shows its last update date on the coverage page.

A worked example

The recorded chain on a lot in Kelly's River Park Estates, Franklin County, as the report writes it. Both documents are in the public record under these numbers.

  • Declaration, recorded June 8, 2005, Franklin County Auditor's No. 1664281
  • Amended covenants, recorded January 31, 2006, Franklin County Auditor's No. 1677249

Schedule B exceptions

Each declaration is one exception. Each amendment sits under the latest declaration recorded before it.

Covenants, conditions, restrictions and/or easements; but deleting any covenant, condition or restriction indicating a preference, limitation or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin to the extent such covenants, conditions or restrictions violate Title 42, Section 3604(c), of the United States Codes:
Recording Date:    June 8, 2005
Recording No.:     1664281
Modification(s) of said covenants:
Recording Date:    January 31, 2006
Recording No.:     1677249

How it works

  1. Search the parcel number from the file. Open the search
  2. Read the recorded instruments block and copy the Schedule B exceptions.
  3. On Pro, run a list of parcels through batch screening, or pull the chain through the API.

Where it works

See the coverage page for the counties we read.

Pricing

Base is $29 a month and Pro is $59 a month. Payments open soon. See the plans

The pilot

A title or escrow office in a county we cover gets Pro free for 60 days. In return, run your next 20 files in our counties through Setback and tell us what it missed and the minutes it saved on each file. No card and no contract; payments are not open yet. Each examiner gets a login of their own.

Start a pilot

Questions

Is Setback a title plant?
No. It holds recorded declarations, covenants and amendments, and the rules read from them. Deeds, liens, easements and plats stay with your plant.
Where do the recording numbers come from?
From the county recorder's index, read every night. Every document in a report carries the auditor's file number the recorder assigned, so you can pull the instrument yourself.
What if a document is missing from a report?
Tell us the parcel and the number. A missing recording is either not yet read or not linked to the lot, and either one is fixed from the index.
How current is the data?
A nightly job reads new recordings in each covered county. The coverage page shows each county's last update.
Can every examiner in the office use it?
Yes. During the pilot each examiner gets their own login on the Pro plan.