Most people don't go looking for a quitclaim deed. They're dealing with a marriage, a divorce, a death in the family, or an estate plan, and they find out along the way that a deed is part of it.
It's also one of the simplest ways to change property ownership. This guide shows you each step, from the deed you have now to the new one on record, using your state's rules.
Start with your situation, not the legal terms. "I got married and want my husband on the house" is a great place to start.
Examples: Do I need a notary in Florida? How do I record a deed in Nevada?
Please keep it general. We can't review your deed or advise on your specific case, so leave out names, addresses, and other personal details.
Find your situation below. Each one explains how a quitclaim deed applies and what you should know before you sign.
To add your spouse, you’d sign a quitclaim deed that puts the property in your name and your spouse’s. The way that deed is worded decides how you’ll share ownership, so it’s worth getting right. Your mortgage won’t change. The loan stays in your name, and your spouse becomes a co-owner of the property without taking on the debt.
Your former spouse signs a quitclaim deed passing their share to you, and recording it brings the county records in line with the divorce. Taking them off the mortgage is a separate step with the lender.
A quitclaim deed is one of the simplest ways to do it, whether you’re giving it as a gift or selling it to them. Our guide covers the paperwork, possible taxes, and what happens if there’s still a mortgage on the place.
A quitclaim deed from your parent adds you to the title now. The guide explains what that means for capital gains, Medicaid, and control of the property, and which documents transfer property at death.
Moving your property into your own revocable living trust is a job for a quitclaim deed. Write the trust’s name exactly as the trust document gives it, and record the deed so the trust holds the property.
How the property was titled decides your next step. When several heirs inherit together, a quitclaim deed is a natural fit for transferring their shares to the heir keeping the property.
A misspelled name, a wrong lot number, or incorrect ownership wording is fixed with a new quitclaim deed, recorded alongside the original. If a name has changed since the deed was signed, the deed needs no fix.
Filling out the deed itself is usually the easy part. The rest depends on the state where the property is located. Some states want witnesses as well as a notary. Florida and Tennessee won’t record a deed that doesn’t say who prepared it. Kentucky requires the owner and the new owner to swear to the price, or, for a gift, to the property’s value.
Those rules follow the property, even if you live somewhere else. Pick your state below, and you’ll find everything in one place.
Choose Your StateA few minutes on the basics makes every later step easier. The guide below explains what a quitclaim deed is, what it can and can't do, and what happens after you sign. Legal terms are explained as they come up, so you don't need to know any of them ahead of time.
Read the Complete GuideA quitclaim deed transfers whatever ownership interest one person has in real estate to someone else. An ownership interest is the set of rights a person holds in a property. Someone may hold all of those rights, or a share of them, or, and this is the part that matters, no valid rights at all.
The key phrase is whatever ownership interest. The deed transfers only the rights the signer actually has, and promises nothing beyond them.
If the person signing owns the entire property, the deed transfers that ownership. If they own only part, it transfers only that part. If they turn out to own nothing at all, the quitclaim deed transfers nothing, and the person receiving it has no recourse.
Deeds use their own words for the two sides, and you will meet them on every form. The grantor is the current owner giving up their interest, and is usually the person who signs. The grantee is the person or company receiving it. That is all those two words mean.
Mary owns her house in her own name and sets up a living trust, so she keeps control of the house while she’s alive and the trust says who gets it after she dies. To put the house in the trust, she signs a quitclaim deed from herself to herself as trustee.
A quitclaim deed fits because Mary is on both sides of the transfer. She already knows what she owns, so she has no need for promises about the title.
That example shows why quitclaim deeds are common between people who already know and trust each other, whether family members, spouses, former spouses, or an owner moving property into their own trust. In many of those situations, nobody needs a guarantee from the other side.
Common misunderstanding:
Signing a quitclaim deed doesn’t clear the title. A lien, which is a legal claim against the property for a debt such as unpaid taxes or a court judgment, stays with the property when it changes hands, and so does any old problem in the ownership record.
A quitclaim deed changes who owns the property. It does not touch the debts, claims, or disputes attached to it.
A quitclaim deed does not:
The deed and the mortgage are two separate documents. Taking someone off the deed does not take them off the loan, and putting someone on the deed does not make them responsible for it. Changing who is responsible for the loan requires the lender's involvement, most often a refinance, and sometimes an assumption or another arrangement the lender approves.
None of these limits get in the way of the transfers quitclaim deeds handle every day. They tell you what to do alongside your deed, such as talking to the lender if there’s a mortgage.
There’s a difference between a quitclaim deed and a warranty deed, and it basically comes down to promises. A warranty in a deed is a promise about ownership or title. A quitclaim deed generally makes no such promises. A warranty deed does.
| Issue | Quitclaim Deed | Warranty Deed |
|---|---|---|
| What it transfers | Whatever ownership interest the grantor has | Ownership, together with promises about the title |
| Title protection | No promise of clear title | Includes promises about title quality |
| Common use | Family, spouse, trust, divorce, or correction transfers | Traditional real estate sales |
| Best for | Transfers between people who already know the situation | Buyers who want protection |
A warranty deed is used in a normal sale because the buyer wants protection. It includes promises from the grantor that they hold good title and have the right to transfer the property, though which promises apply and how far they reach depend on state law and the deed's wording. A quitclaim deed is used when the parties already know each other and are not asking for any of that.
Some states also use deeds that sit between these two. California's standard deed for a sale, for example, is a grant deed, which includes two promises about what happened while the seller owned the property. Your state page names the deeds used where the property is located.
Gather this before you start filling anything out. It prevents most of the mistakes that get deeds rejected at the recorder's counter.
Three of those are worth a word of explanation. The current owner is whoever the existing deed and the land records actually show as holding the property, which is not always the person you would expect. The new owner is the person or company receiving it, called the grantee on the deed itself. The parcel number is the identifying number the county or local tax office assigns to the property, and some recording offices want it on the document while others do not.
What is being paid is explained further down, under What to Put for the Amount, because in many states that figure decides the tax.
The legal description matters more than anything else on the list. It is the official description of the land as it appears in deeds and county records, not the street address. A street address identifies a mailbox. The legal description identifies the land, and deed records depend on it. Copy it exactly, character for character.
Tip:
Do not take the legal description from a property tax bill or an online map. Both are frequently abbreviated or wrong. Use the current recorded deed or the official county land records.
Want to see how this comes together on the page? Check out our filled-out quitclaim deed example for a plain-English walkthrough.
Here is the whole process in order. Each step is covered in more detail elsewhere on this page, because the answer to most of them depends on where the property is located.
Each step has a state answer, and several also have a county answer. Check the instructions for the state where the property sits before you prepare or sign anything.
Almost every deed form asks what is being paid. The word for it is consideration, and it means whatever the new owner gives in exchange. For a sale, that’s the price. On a gift, it may be nothing at all.
Older deeds and many blank forms carry a traditional phrase: ten dollars and other good and valuable consideration. It dates from a time when a deed had to show that something was exchanged, and it tells a reader nothing about what actually happened. Some states no longer accept it. Kentucky requires the grantor and the grantee to swear to the real price, or to state that the transfer is a gift and give the property's fair cash value.
The figure matters because many states calculate transfer tax from the amount stated on the deed, so write what actually changed hands. If nothing did, your state page explains how to word it.
When there’s a mortgage
In some states, a mortgage counts as part of the amount even when no money changes hands. Florida includes the balance of any mortgage or other lien on the property, whether or not the new owner takes on the debt, so tax can be due on a transfer the family thought of as a gift. California leaves out a lien that stays in place.
Many states will not record a deed unless it says who prepared it. The line is short — some form of this instrument was prepared by, then a name, and often an address. Wisconsin says drafted rather than prepared. In some states, it goes at the top of the first page; in others, at the end of the deed.
It is not a claim that you are a lawyer. If you filled out the form yourself, you are the preparer, and your name belongs on that line. In North Carolina, the register does not check further.
Where it is required, leaving it off is enough to get the deed handed back at the counter. Florida and Tennessee both refuse a deed without it. Virginia goes further for a house or small residential property, where the first page has to say the deed was prepared by the owner or by a Virginia attorney. Idaho does not ask for it at all. Your state page says which of those applies to you.
If two or more people will own the property after the transfer, the deed needs to say how they own it together. This part of the deed is often called the vesting, and it’s easy to overlook, but it matters a lot down the road.
The vesting decides what happens to the property when one owner dies. It also decides whether the property has to go through probate, the court process for settling someone’s estate after they die. Some types of ownership skip probate, while others don’t. In some states, the vesting can even affect whether a creditor of one owner can go after the property.
Tenants in common means each owner holds a separate share. When one owner dies, that share passes through their estate rather than automatically to the other owners, unless some other planning tool is in place. It is useful when co-owners want to leave their share to someone else, for example, children from a previous marriage.
With joint tenancy, a share doesn’t pass through the owner’s estate when they die. It goes straight to the co-owners who are still living, without probate. Couples and other co-owners who want the property to go to whoever is left often choose it. It works that way only if your state’s law allows it and the deed says so in the words your state expects.
Tenancy by the entirety is open only to married couples, and only in the states that recognize it — roughly half. The couple holds the whole property together rather than in separate shares. It works like joint tenancy with survivorship and adds meaningful creditor protection. In most states that offer it, a creditor of one spouse alone generally cannot force a sale of the home. That protection is why couples with business or professional liability often choose it, where available.
This option exists in some of the nine community property states: Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. What a married couple acquires during the marriage in one of them generally belongs to both of them equally, and this way of holding title builds on that. The survivorship wording adds automatic transfer at death, so the surviving spouse does not need probate to take full ownership.
The tax advantage usually mentioned alongside it comes from somewhere else. Community property generally receives a stepped-up basis on both halves when the first spouse dies, rather than only on the deceased spouse's half. That reset follows from the property being community property, not from adding survivorship to the title. On a home that has appreciated substantially, the difference can be worth a great deal at a future sale. A couple whose home is already community property does not have to re-title it to get that treatment. Whether a particular property counts as community property is its own question: what one spouse owned before the marriage, or inherited during it, is usually separate property.
Getting it right the first time
A few words on the deed decide what happens later, and changing them after the deed is recorded takes a new deed that all the owners sign. Which kinds of ownership you can choose, and how the recorder expects them worded, depend on your state.
In most states, you sign your quitclaim deed in front of a notary public. Depending on where the property is located, your deed may also need one or two witnesses, the grantee’s signature, or, in states that give a married owner’s home special protection, your spouse’s signature even if your spouse isn’t on the title.
The notary looks at your ID and fills in the acknowledgment, a short statement, usually near the end of the deed, saying you appeared before the notary and confirmed you signed it. Checking the deed for mistakes isn’t the notary’s job, so read over the names and the legal description before your appointment.
With Remote Online Notarization, or RON, you don’t have to go anywhere to get your deed notarized. Instead, you meet with a notary on a secure live video call. When each state's RON rules were last checked, on September 9, 2026, it was up and running in 41 of the 50 states. In the other nine it was either not available or available only in part: Alabama, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
If your property is in one of those nine, check your state’s page for the latest before you plan on notarizing online. These rules change often.
Before using online notarization for a deed, confirm two things separately: that your state authorizes it for real property documents, and that the specific county recording office will accept a remotely notarized deed. The second does not always follow from the first.
Each state's status, with a link to the official source it was checked against, is in our Remote Online Notarization by State guide.
After you sign the deed and have it notarized, record it with the county recording office where the property is located. Recording puts the ownership change into the public land records, which helps protect the new owner's interest against later competing claims. An unrecorded deed can create problems that surface years later.
The recording office goes by different names depending on the state: County Recorder, Recorder of Deeds, Register of Deeds, Clerk and Recorder, Chancery Clerk, or another local title.
Counties take deeds in up to three ways: by mail, in person at the recording office, or electronically through an approved eRecording company. Not every county offers all three, so before you send in your deed, check the county’s website for which ones it takes, the recording fee, how you can pay, and any forms that go with the deed.
Don’t skip the formatting rules, either. It sounds picky, but counties really do reject deeds over the wrong margins, paper size, or font.
Tip: If you mail your deed, send it with tracking. Some counties ask for a stamped envelope addressed to you so they can mail the recorded deed back; if yours does, put one in.
Before You Record
After recording, the county will return the original recorded deed or provide a recorded copy, depending on its normal procedures. Keep it. You will need it the next time the property changes hands.
In some states, changing who owns real estate comes with a tax. Depending on the state, it’s called a transfer tax, deed tax, documentary tax, or realty transfer fee. Other states have none, and in some places a county or city charges its own on top of the state’s.
Many states exempt family and spousal transfers from transfer tax — but the exemption usually has to be claimed on the deed or an accompanying form. It is rarely automatic. If you miss the form, the recorder charges the tax.
Depending on your state, you may need to file some extra paperwork along with the deed. This could be a transfer declaration, an affidavit, an assessor form, a tax statement, a water-rights disclosure, or a local cover sheet.
A common one is the certificate of value. It’s a form that tells the county what the property is worth or gives the basic details of the transfer, so the county can use it for taxes or property assessments. Some states also ask for an affidavit with certain deeds. That’s a written statement the signer swears is true, usually signed in front of a notary.
Separately, watch for property tax reassessment. In states where a transfer can reset the assessed value, a deed between family members can trigger a permanent increase in the annual tax bill — unless an exclusion applies and you file the right claim form. California is the best-known example, but it is not the only one.
Plain-English rule:
A lot of people figure that since no one’s buying or selling, there’s no tax to worry about. That’s not always true. On the other hand, you might qualify for an exemption that means no tax is due. Whether you owe anything comes down to your state, your county, and why you’re transferring the property, so check before you file.
Pick the state where the property is located. Each state page takes you through that state’s deed from signing to recording: the notary and any witnesses, the transfer tax, and the forms that go with the deed.
Yes. Owners often prepare their own deeds for family, spouse, trust, and correction transfers, and where a state wants the preparer named on the deed, your own name goes on that line. The parts to get exactly right are the names, the legal description copied from the current recorded deed, signing in front of a notary, and your state's recording rules. If you would rather start from something built for your state, see our Quitclaim Deed Help page.
No. A quitclaim deed changes who is listed on title, but it does not remove anyone from a mortgage loan. The loan is a separate contract with the lender. Changing who owes it takes the lender's agreement, usually through refinancing, and sometimes through an assumption or another arrangement the lender approves.
Yes, and it is one of the most common uses. It does not add them to the mortgage. The ownership wording matters, because it determines what happens when one spouse dies and whether a creditor of one spouse can reach the home. See our guide on adding a spouse to the deed.
Usually not, when the transfer is one federal law protects. For a loan on residential property with fewer than five dwelling units, the Garn-St Germain Depository Institutions Act lists transfers a lender may not use a due-on-sale clause against. These include a transfer in which your spouse or children become an owner, a transfer to your spouse under a divorce or separation decree, and a transfer into a living trust where you remain a beneficiary and your right to live there does not change. The federal rule comes with some strings attached. It only applies to a home you live in. If you're transferring it to your spouse or child, they need to live there too, or plan to. And if you're putting it into a living trust, you have to stay a beneficiary of the trust and keep living in the home. If your transfer doesn't fit one of those situations, or the loan is on a larger building, the protection doesn't apply. Read your loan documents before signing a deed, and notify your servicer afterward.
Yes. A quitclaim deed is the usual way to move property into your own revocable living trust: you deed it from yourself to yourself as trustee. Name the trust exactly as the trust document does, including the trustee's name and the date the trust was signed, and let your lender know once you record the deed.
It depends on the state. Some want one or two witnesses on top of the notary, while many only need the notary. A few states even ask the person receiving the property to sign. Before anyone signs, check the state page for wherever the property is located so you get it right the first time.
Once it's recorded, your deed is part of the county's public land records. The county sends back the original or a recorded copy, so keep it somewhere safe. In some states and counties, a tax or assessor form is due after recording. Let your insurance company know who owns the property now, too.
Not on your own. Once your deed is recorded, the person you deeded the property to owns what you gave them, and tearing up your copy or asking the county to take it back doesn't change that. To undo it, they would sign a new deed giving it back to you, or a court would order it.
No. This guide provides general educational information only. It is not legal advice and does not replace advice from a qualified professional familiar with your specific situation and the laws of your state.
Most of what this guide describes is set by state law, and those sources sit on the state pages, where they belong. A handful of points above are federal, and this is where they come from.
You do not need any of this to use the guide. It is here so that you can check the exact wording. U.S.C. stands for the United States Code, the collected federal statutes, and the numbers are only an address: a title, then a section, the way a street name and a house number get you to one front door. Each link opens the official text in a new tab.