How to Get a Copy of Your Deed in Tulsa County

Deeds are held by the county, not the city

This is the first wrong turn people take. Property deed records for Tulsa are not kept at City Hall. The City of Tulsa Clerk handles council records, ordinances and municipal documents.

Deeds, mortgages, liens, releases, easements, assignments and subdivision plats are held by the Tulsa County Clerk, Real Estate Services Division, at Tulsa County Headquarters, 218 W. 6th Street, 7th Floor, Tulsa. Their number is 918-596-5801.

That applies to property inside Tulsa city limits as well as the rest of the county. The County Clerk is the registrar of deeds for every parcel.

Searching online: LOCCAT and the document search

The County Clerk provides online access through a document search portal, and an account is required to run searches. You can search by grantor or grantee name, by property address, or by instrument number.

There is also LOCCAT, which the Clerk describes as a map-based application presenting land records and real estate information in one place, combining records from the County Clerk, the Assessor and the Treasurer. There is an instructional video on the Clerk's site, which is worth the few minutes if you are going to use it more than once.

Older or more detailed documents that are not in the online database can be requested directly at the Clerk's office for review or copies.

If you need the parcel number first, our guide to Tulsa County property records covers finding it through the Assessor.

What copies cost

Published fees at the time of writing: a paper copy of a document is $1.00 per page, and certifying a document from the office is $1.00.

For reference, recording a deed, mortgage or similar document is $18.00, with $2.00 for each additional page of the same instrument.

Fees change. Confirm current amounts with the Clerk's office on 918-596-5801 before relying on these, particularly if you are budgeting for something larger than a copy.

What the deed will and will not tell you

It tells you who conveyed the property to whom, when, the legal description, and what kind of deed it was. A warranty deed and a quitclaim deed convey very different assurances, which is one of the more consequential distinctions in a title chain.

It does not tell you whether there are liens, judgments, unreleased mortgages or easements affecting the property. Those are separate recorded instruments, and a title search finds them rather than a deed copy.

It also does not tell you whether the mineral estate travelled with the surface. Severed minerals are common across Oklahoma, and our article on severed mineral rights explains what that means in practice.

Our article on reading an abstract of title covers the fuller picture.

When the deed is still in a dead relative's name

This is extremely common in Tulsa, particularly in the older neighbourhoods and on rural land where families have held property for generations. Somebody dies, the family keeps paying the taxes, and the deed is never changed.

Paying the tax bill does not transfer ownership. Living in the house does not either. Until the transfer is completed properly, nobody can sell the property, mortgage it, or in many cases insure it correctly.

The route depends on the circumstances: a full probate, a summary administration, a transfer on death deed if one was recorded before the death, or an affidavit of surviving joint tenant where the property was held jointly. Our articles on summary administration and transfer on death deeds explain two of them.

Which one applies is a question for an Oklahoma probate attorney and not for us. Finding the recorded deed is the first step in answering it, which is why people usually arrive at the Clerk's office before they arrive at a lawyer's.