§ 22. Building loan contract. A building loan contract either with or
without the sale of land, and any modification thereof, must be in
writing and duly acknowledged, and must contain a true statement under
oath, verified by the borrower, showing the consideration paid, or to be
paid, for the loan described therein, and showing all other expenses, if
any, incurred, or to be incurred in connection therewith, and the net
sum available to the borrower for the improvement, and, on or before the
date of recording the building loan mortgage made pursuant thereto, to
be filed in the office of the clerk of the county in which any part of
the land is situated, except that any subsequent modification of any
such building loan contract so filed must be filed within ten days after
the execution of any such modification. No such building loan contract
or any modification thereof shall be filed in the register's office of
any county. If not so filed the interest of each party to such contract
in the real property affected thereby, is subject to the lien and claim
of a person who shall thereafter file a notice of lien under this
chapter. A modification of such contract shall not affect or impair the
right or interest of a person, who, previous to the filing of such
modification had furnished or contracted to furnish materials, or had
performed or contracted to perform labor for the improvement of real
property, but such right or interest shall be determined by the original
contract. The county clerk is entitled to a fee of twenty-five dollars,
except in counties within the city of New York where the fee shall be
fifty dollars, for filing such a contract or modification. Except where
the county clerk maintains a block index, such contracts and
modifications thereof shall be indexed in a book provided for that
purpose, in the alphabetical order of the names of the persons to whom
such loans shall be made. No assignment of the moneys due or to become
due under a building loan contract, under the provisions of section
twenty-six of this article, nor any payment to the holder of such
assignment, shall be or be construed to be a modification of a building
loan contract within the meaning of this section, and the execution and
delivery of a bond and mortgage, under the provisions of section
twenty-six of this article, or payments thereunder, shall not be or be
construed to be the making of a building loan contract within the
meaning of this section.

Except that this section shall not apply to any mortgage taken by the
home owners' loan corporation, a corporation created under an act of
congress, known as the "home owners' loan act of nineteen hundred
thirty-three" and the "home owners' loan act of nineteen hundred
thirty-three as amended," and said mortgage shall have priority over any
and all liens filed subsequent to the date of the recording of said
mortgage whether or not the cash and/or bonds for which said mortgage
has been taken as security, shall have been advanced at the time of the
execution of such mortgage or subsequent thereto, and it shall not be
necessary to execute and file any building loan contract or any other
contract, in compliance with this section or any part thereof.

Where the county clerk indexes liens in a block index, every building
loan contract presented to the clerk for filing, in order to entitle the
same to be filed, shall contain in the body thereof, or shall have
endorsed thereon, a designation of the number of every block, on the
land map of the county, which is affected by the building loan contract.
The county clerk shall cause such building loan contract to be entered
in the block index, under the block number of every block so designated.
In cases where a building loan contract shall have been filed without
such designation or with an erroneous designation, the county clerk, on
presentation of proper proof thereof, shall enter such instrument in the
proper index, under the proper block number of every block in which the
land affected is situated, and shall, at the same time, make a note of
such entry and of the date thereof in every place in which such
instrument may have been erroneously indexed, opposite the entry
thereof, and also upon the instrument itself, if the same be in his
possession or produced to him for the purpose, and the filing of such
instrument shall be constructive notice as to property in the block not
duly designated at the time of such filing only from the time when the
same shall be properly indexed.

A county clerk may adopt a new indexing system utilizing
electro-mechanical, electronic or any other method he deems suitable for
maintaining the indexes.