What is a title runsheet?
A title runsheet (also written "title run sheet") is a list of every recorded instrument that affects a tract of land or minerals, one line per document, in recording order. It's the map of the title before anyone writes an opinion on it.
Why it exists
Ownership of minerals is built from documents filed at the county over a century or more: patents, deeds, leases, assignments, releases, probates and court orders. Before a land manager can lease, an operator can drill, or a buyer can close, someone has to find every one of those documents and put them in order. The runsheet is that list.
What goes on it, column by column
| Column | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Book and page | Where the county filed the document. Older records, and most Kansas records, are cited this way. |
| Reception number | The county's own number for the filing. In Wyoming and many western counties this is the main reference. |
| Instrument | What kind of document it is: warranty deed, mineral deed, oil and gas lease, assignment, release, affidavit of heirship. |
| Instrument date | The date written on the document, or its effective date. |
| Recorded | The date the county filed it. |
| Grantor and grantee | Who conveyed and who received. On a good title runsheet, every party is named, not "John Smith et al." |
| Lands | The legal description the document covers, so you can see which instruments touch your tract. |
| Comments | What the document does: minerals reserved, lease term and royalty, what an assignment covers, what a release releases. |
| Link | A link that opens the recorded document itself. |
Title runsheet vs. index runsheet
An index runsheet is built from the county's tract index: each line as the county wrote it, with book, page, reception number and a link. It's fast and tells you what's there. A title runsheet comes from reading each document, so the dates, parties and comments are taken from the instrument itself. Most title work starts with the index runsheet and moves to a title runsheet or a full abstract as the deal gets closer.
What makes a good one
- The numbers are right. A wrong book, page or reception number sends the attorney to the wrong document. Read numbers from the recording stamp, not just the index.
- Every link works and opens the right document. Open them all before you send it.
- Nothing is hidden behind "et al." Every party named.
- Gaps are written down. A missing document or a number the county wrote two ways belongs in the notes, not in someone's memory.
Making your own? A spreadsheet with the columns above is all a title run sheet template needs. If you'd rather not build it, we deliver title runsheets at a fixed price, in your template or ours, with every link checked.