The definitions set forth in this section apply throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires otherwise.

(1) "Recording officer" means the county auditor, or in charter counties the county official charged with the responsibility for recording instruments in the county records.

(2) "File," "filed," or "filing" means the act of delivering or transmitting electronically an instrument to the auditor or recording officer for recording into the official public records.

(3) "Record," "recorded," or "recording" means the process, such as electronic, mechanical, optical, magnetic, or microfilm storage used by the auditor or recording officer after filing to incorporate the instrument into the public records.

(4) "Recording number" means a unique number that identifies the storage location (book or volume and page, reel and frame, instrument number, auditor or recording officer file number, receiving number, electronic retrieval code, or other specific place) of each instrument in the public records accessible in the same recording office where the instrument containing the reference to the location is found.

(5) "Grantor/grantee" for recording purposes means the names of the parties involved in the transaction used to create the recording index. There will always be at least one grantor and one grantee for any document. In some cases, the grantor and the grantee will be the same individual(s), or one of the parties may be the public.

(6) "Legible and capable of being imaged" means all text, seals, drawings, signatures, or other content within the document must be legible and capable of producing a readable image, regardless of what process is used for recording.

Effective date—1999 c 233: See note following RCW 4.28.320.