(a) An agreement of understanding between a participating county clerk and an authorized filer shall include information required by the participating county clerk in order to provide electronic notice of confirmation or rejection of an electronic filing and subsequent recording, or if such electronic notice is not possible, by telephone or facsimile. The agreement of understanding shall address the following:
  (1) All electronic submissions shall generate an acknowledgment of receipt to an authorized filer indicating that the instrument has been filed, but not recorded by the participating county clerk. The acknowledgment of receipt shall include the identity of the receiving county clerk, date and time of the instrument's receipt (which is the county clerk's official receipt date/time), and a county clerk-assigned instrument reference number (i.e., transaction number).
  (2) When a participating county clerk provides acknowledgment of receipt of an instrument filed electronically, the instrument is considered to have been filed in compliance with the applicable regulations and laws relating to filing of an instrument with the county clerk.
  (3) A notice of confirmation of recording or a notice of rejection for recording shall be provided by a participating county clerk to an authorized filer no later than the first business day after the instrument is filed electronically pursuant to the Local Government Code, §195.004(a).
  (4) A notice of confirmation shall include recording information for the instrument accepted for recording and shall identify the instrument accepted for recording, as provided in the agreement.
  (5) A notice of rejection shall include a brief explanation of the reason or reasons for rejection and shall identify the instrument rejected for recording, as provided in the agreement.
  (6) If a participating county clerk complies with the notice provisions of the agreement, the failure of an authorized filer to receive notice of confirmation or rejection of filing and subsequent recording shall not affect the validity of the confirmation or rejection.
(b) The authorized filer shall be responsible for returning the original instrument to the party or parties entitled to it after notice of confirmation of recording is received by the authorized filer and for providing to such party or parties the recording information set forth in the notice of confirmation from the participating county clerk.
(c) A participating county clerk may allow the concurrent submission of an index of real property records filed electronically with the corresponding electronically filed instruments.
(d) If a participating county clerk permits an electronically filed index of real property records, and the authorized filer submits an electronic index, the following requirements shall be met:
  (1) The index shall show the same information that may be required by state law for an index to the same record if it is not filed electronically.
  (2) Indexing fields and field syntax shall be provided by the participating county clerk to enable authorized filers, who choose to do so, to transmit that information in as complete a form as possible.

Source Note: The provisions of this §7.144 adopted to be effective December 6, 2000, 25 TexReg 11937