As used in this article, unless the context requires otherwise:

"Day" means calendar day.

"Document" means information that is:

1. Inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form, and

2. Eligible to be recorded in the land records maintained by the clerk.

"Electronic," as defined in the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (§ 59.1-479 et seq.), means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic or similar capabilities.

"Electronic document" means a document received by the clerk in electronic form.

"Electronic notarization" means an official act by a notary public in accordance with the Virginia Notary Act (§ 47.1-1 et seq.) and § 55-118.3 with respect to an electronic document.

"Electronic signature," as defined in the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (§ 59.1-479 et seq.), means an electronic sound, symbol, or process attached to or logically associated with a record and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the record.

"eRecording System" means the automated electronic recording system implemented by the clerk for the recordation of electronic documents among the land records maintained by the clerk.

"Filer" means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, public body, public corporation, government, or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity who files an electronic document among the land records maintained by the clerk.

"Good faith" means honesty in fact and the observance of reasonable commercial standards of fair dealing.

"Landowner" means a person that, before foreclosure, has the right of redemption in the real property described in a security instrument. The term does not include a person that holds only a lien on the real property.

"Land records document" means any writing authorized by law to be recorded, whether made on paper or in electronic format, which the clerk records affecting title to real property.

"Organization" means a person other than an individual.

"Person" means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, public corporation, government, or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity.

"Real property" means real property that is used for residential or nonresidential purposes.

"Recording data" means the date, and deed book and page number or instrument number, that indicate where a document is recorded in the land records of the clerk of the circuit court pursuant to Chapter 6 (§ 55-106 et seq.).

"Secured creditor" means a person who holds or is the beneficiary of a security interest or that is authorized both to receive payments on behalf of a person that holds a security interest in real property and to record a satisfaction of the security instrument upon receiving full performance of the secured obligation. The term does not include a trustee under a security instrument. The term also includes "lender" as used in Chapter 27.3 (§ 55-525.16 et seq.) of Title 55 and "lien creditor" and "servicer" as used in § 55-66.3.

"Secured obligation" means an obligation the payment or performance of which is secured by a security interest.

"Security instrument" means an agreement, however denominated, that creates or provides for a security interest, whether or not it also creates or provides for a lien on personal property.

"Security interest" means an interest in real property created by a security instrument, securing payment, or performance of an obligation and includes a mortgage or deed of trust.

"Sign" means, with present intent to authenticate, accept, or adopt a document:

1. To execute or adopt a tangible symbol; or

2. To attach to or logically associate with the document an electronic sound, symbol, or process.

"State" means a state of the United States, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.

"Submit for recording" means to deliver, with required fees and taxes, a document sufficient to be recorded under this article, to the office of the clerk of the circuit court pursuant to Chapter 6 (§ 55-106 et seq.).

2006, c. 907.