Lawyer Listings Add, Update, or Remove Listings

Deed Types: Warranty, Special Warranty and Quitclaim

What the different forms of deed promise about the title they convey - the general warranty deed's guarantee against every defect, the special warranty deed's narrower one, and the quitclaim deed's none - and what each is used for.

Informational only - this is not legal advice. These definitions explain general legal vocabulary in plain English. They are not advice about your situation, reading them creates no attorney-client relationship, and the law differs from state to state and changes over time. For advice you can rely on, speak to a lawyer licensed in your state.

What it means

A deed is the written instrument that transfers ownership of real property, and its form determines what the seller promises about the title. A general warranty deed carries the full set of title covenants: that the grantor owns the property and has the right to convey it, that it is free of encumbrances except those stated, and that the grantor will defend the grantee against any claim to the title by anyone, arising at any time in the property's history - including before the grantor owned it. If a defect surfaces, the grantee may sue the grantor for the loss. It is the deed a buyer expects in an ordinary sale.

A special (or limited) warranty deed makes the same promises but only as to the grantor's own period of ownership: the grantor warrants that they did nothing to cloud the title, and says nothing about what earlier owners did. Banks selling foreclosed property, estates, trustees and builders commonly convey by special warranty deed because they cannot vouch for the property's history. A quitclaim deed conveys whatever interest the grantor has, if any, and promises nothing at all - not even that the grantor owns the property. It is used to clear a cloud on title, to transfer property between spouses or family members, to add or remove a name, and in divorce settlements; a buyer paying market value should not accept one.

A deed must identify the grantor and grantee, describe the property adequately, be signed by the grantor and, in most states, acknowledged before a notary, and it takes effect on delivery to and acceptance by the grantee, not on recording - though it is recorded at once to protect the grantee against later claims. Several states use a statutory short-form deed whose warranties are implied by a single word such as "grant" or "convey and warrant". The deed's warranties do not replace title insurance: a grantor may be dead, insolvent or gone by the time a defect appears.

Where this comes from

Deed forms and their implied covenants are state law: the six common-law title covenants (seisin, right to convey, against encumbrances, quiet enjoyment, warranty, further assurances) are stated in each state's decisions and, in many states, implied by the conveyancing statute itself (California Civil Code § 1113 and Texas Property Code § 5.023 imply seisin and freedom from encumbrances in a grant; many statutes also prescribe short-form deeds with statutory warranties). The Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act and the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act are the uniform acts most often encountered alongside deed questions. Execution, acknowledgment and recording requirements are in each state's recording act; delivery as the operative act is the common-law rule followed in every state.

When people hire a lawyer for this

The deed is the one document in a sale that should not be improvised from a form found online: a description copied wrongly, a grantor who is not the record owner, a missing spouse's signature in a community-property or homestead state, or a quitclaim used where a warranty was bargained for can each take years and a lawsuit to undo. A person asked to sign a quitclaim deed - by a family member, a contractor, a lender or a stranger offering to "help" with a foreclosure - should have a lawyer read it first, because a quitclaim gives away everything and cannot be taken back.

Find a lawyer for this in your state

Choose your state. Each link opens the directory page for the city in that state with the most currently published law firms in this practice area; a +n beside the city is how many other cities in the state also have one. The list is generated when this page loads, so a state whose listings have lapsed drops out rather than becoming a dead link.

« All glossary terms

Part of the LawyerLand plain-English legal glossary. Definitions are written from primary sources - statutes and court rules - and each entry states the authority it rests on, or says plainly when the doctrine is state law with no national rule.

If you cannot afford a lawyer, civil legal aid programmes provide free help with many of these problems: civil legal aid programmes by state.

Related free reference tools: statute of limitations for a personal-injury claim, by state, quoted from each state's official text - part of LawyerLand's legal reference tools.