To deed land to a family member, you draft a new deed naming them as the grantee, sign it in front of a notary, and record it with the county recorder in the county where the land sits. The mechanics are straightforward and most people can handle them without a lawyer. The money side is where families get hurt: a mortgage can be called due, a gift over $19,000 has to be reported to the IRS, and the person receiving the land inherits your original tax basis instead of getting a fresh one at today’s value. Work through those issues before you sign anything.
Pick the Right Type of Deed
The deed type sets what you are promising the recipient about the title. Three options cover almost every family transfer.
A quitclaim deed transfers whatever interest you currently hold and makes no guarantees about the title’s history. If an unknown lien or boundary problem surfaces later, the recipient has no claim against you. Families use quitclaim deeds often because they trust each other enough to skip the warranties, and the paperwork is simpler.
A grant deed, called a special warranty deed in many states, is the middle option. You guarantee that you did not create any title problems while you owned the land, but you say nothing about issues predating your ownership.
A general warranty deed is the strongest. You stand behind the title across its entire history, not just your years of ownership. This is the deed to use if the recipient plans to sell the land or borrow against it, since lenders and future buyers expect a warranty deed.
Check the Mortgage and Liens Before You Transfer
A deed does not move the mortgage. The loan stays in your name while someone else holds title, and most mortgage contracts contain a due-on-sale clause that lets the lender demand full repayment when ownership changes.
Federal law carves out a narrow protection. Under the Garn-St. Germain Act, a lender cannot enforce a due-on-sale clause on a residential property with fewer than five units when the transfer puts your spouse or children on the title.1GovInfo. 12 USC 1701j-3 – Preemption of Due-on-Sale Prohibitions The same protection covers transfers tied to divorce or the death of a co-borrower. Transfers to siblings, parents, cousins, nieces, or nephews are not covered, so deeding mortgaged property to a relative outside the spouse-or-child category gives the lender legal grounds to call the loan.
Pull a title search through your county records before you transfer. Tax liens, judgment liens, and mechanics’ liens travel with the land, and finding them after the deed is recorded is a much worse position for the new owner than finding them beforehand.
Information You Need for the Deed
Before filling out the form, gather:
- Full legal names of every current owner and every recipient, matching their government-issued ID exactly. A misspelled name or dropped middle initial creates a title defect that will block future sales or refinancing.
- The legal description of the property. This is not the street address. It uses metes and bounds or the lot and block numbers from a recorded plat, and you can pull it from your current deed or a recent survey.
- The assessor’s parcel number from your property tax bill or the county assessor’s website.
- Vesting language if the land is going to more than one person. Joint tenancy with right of survivorship sends each share to the surviving owner automatically. Tenancy in common lets each person leave their share through a will. Most states default to tenancy in common when the deed is silent.
Even in a transfer between people who trust each other, a preliminary title report is worth ordering. It surfaces easements, liens, and ownership claims that no one in the family may know about.
Sign, Notarize, and Record
Every current owner has to sign the deed as a grantor. The recipient usually does not need to sign, though some jurisdictions require it for certain deed types.
The signatures must be notarized. The notary checks identification and confirms no one is being pressured. Without notarization the recorder will reject the deed. Some states also require one or two witnesses in addition to the notary, so check your county recorder’s website before you schedule the signing.
A signed deed does not transfer ownership until it is recorded with the county recorder in the county where the land is located. Filing is in person, by mail, or in some counties through electronic recording. Recording fees generally run from $15 to $100 for a standard deed, with per-page charges if the document is long. Many jurisdictions also impose a documentary transfer tax, though gift deeds that transfer unencumbered property are often exempt when you note the correct exemption code on the deed or an attached affidavit.
Most counties also want a change-of-ownership statement filed alongside the deed, which tells the assessor what kind of transfer this is. Filing it with the deed avoids a late-filing penalty some jurisdictions charge. Once recorded, the deed gets an instrument number and the original is mailed back within a few weeks.
Gift Tax Reporting
Transferring land to a family member without receiving fair market value in return is a gift under federal tax law. You must file Form 709 if the value of your gifts to any single person exceeds $19,000 in a calendar year.2Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026 Land almost always clears that threshold, so expect to file.
Filing does not mean you owe tax. The amount above $19,000 counts against your lifetime gift and estate tax exemption, which is $15,000,000 for 2026.3Internal Revenue Service. What’s New – Estate and Gift Tax For most people this is paperwork, not a tax bill. Skipping the return is still a problem, because the statute of limitations on gift tax assessments does not start running until the return is filed.
Married couples can split the gift and effectively double the annual exclusion to $38,000 per recipient, but both spouses have to file Form 709 to make the election, even if only one spouse owns the land. The return is due April 15 of the year after the gift. An extension on your income tax return extends the gift tax deadline automatically, and Form 8892 gives you a separate six-month extension if you need one.4Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 709
The Capital Gains Trap: Carryover Basis vs. Stepped-Up Basis
This is where family land transfers quietly cost tens of thousands of dollars. When you give land away, the recipient takes over your original cost basis.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 1015 – Basis of Property Acquired by Gifts and Transfers in Trust If you paid $30,000 for a parcel forty years ago and it is worth $300,000 today, your family member’s basis is $30,000. When they sell, they owe capital gains tax on the $270,000 difference.
Land that passes through an estate works differently. An heir receives a stepped-up basis equal to the fair market value on the date of death.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 1014 – Basis of Property Acquired From a Decedent The same $300,000 parcel inherited at death carries a $300,000 basis, so an heir who sold soon after would owe little or no capital gains tax.
For land that has appreciated significantly, holding it and letting it pass through your estate often saves more than any benefit from transferring it now. Run the numbers, or have a tax professional run them, before you deed appreciated property as a gift.
Property Tax Reassessment
A change in ownership triggers reassessment in many jurisdictions. If the land has been in your family for years and its assessed value is well below current market value, the new owner can get hit with a sharply higher property tax bill.
Some states shield specific family transfers from reassessment. Parent-to-child transfers of a primary residence are the most common exemption, though the rules and dollar limits vary. Transfers between siblings, to nieces or nephews, or of non-homestead property frequently get no exemption at all. Call the county assessor before you record the deed so the new owner knows what the tax bill will look like.
Medicaid Five-Year Look-Back
If the person giving away the land might need Medicaid long-term care within the next five years, timing is critical. Federal law imposes a 60-month look-back: assets transferred within five years before a Medicaid long-term care application can trigger a penalty period of ineligibility, with the length based on the value of the transferred asset divided by the average monthly cost of nursing home care in your state.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 1396p – Liens, Adjustments and Recoveries, and Transfers of Assets
Several transfers are exempt. A home transferred to a spouse carries no penalty regardless of timing. The same goes for a transfer to a child under 21 or a child who is blind or permanently disabled. A caregiver child who lived in the home for at least two years before the parent entered a nursing facility and whose care delayed that admission is protected, and a sibling who already had an ownership interest and lived in the home for at least one year before institutionalization is also protected.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 1396p – Liens, Adjustments and Recoveries, and Transfers of Assets
Outside those categories, a transfer within five years of applying for Medicaid can delay benefits at the worst possible moment. Planning several years ahead is what separates a routine transfer from a serious financial crisis.
Title Insurance After the Transfer
Your existing title insurance policy protects you, not the next owner. When you deed the land to a family member, the recipient is generally not covered under your old policy. Quitclaim deeds are especially problematic because many policies tie continued coverage to the warranties contained in the transfer deed, and a quitclaim contains none.
The new owner can buy their own policy. For land that has been in the family for generations or was acquired without a professional title search, a new policy is meaningful protection against unknown claims. For a recent purchase with a clean title report already on file, the risk is lower, and the cost of a fresh policy becomes a judgment call.