The grantee on a quitclaim deed is the person or entity receiving the property interest from the grantor. What makes that role different from a buyer under a warranty deed is what you don’t get: no promise that the title is clean, no promise the grantor actually owns the property, and no legal claim against the grantor if it turns out they had nothing to give. You take whatever interest the grantor holds at the moment of transfer, along with any liens, easements, or competing claims attached to it.
That bare-bones nature is why quitclaim deeds show up mostly in trusted relationships: transfers between family members, adding or removing a spouse, moving property into a living trust, or fixing a name error on an earlier deed. They are rarely used in arm’s-length sales between strangers, because a stranger would want the guarantees a warranty deed provides.
One often-overlooked consequence for the grantee: an existing title insurance policy may not carry over. Some insurers treat delivery of a quitclaim deed as ending coverage. Before you accept the deed, call the title insurer and confirm in writing whether the current policy still protects you or whether you need a new one.
How Your Name Should Appear on the Deed
Use your full legal name — first, middle, and last — exactly as it appears on your government-issued identification. Nicknames, initials, and shortened forms create what title professionals call a cloud on the title, which makes the property harder to sell or refinance later. If the name on this deed doesn’t match the name on a future document, the chain of title can look broken even when the same person is involved.
Include your current mailing address so the county assessor and tax collector can reach you. If the grantee is an entity, write the full registered name exactly as it appears on the LLC’s or trust’s organizing documents. A misspelled entity name can call the entire transfer into question.
When There Is More Than One Grantee
If the deed names two or more grantees, it needs to say how you will hold the property together. That choice controls what happens when one of you dies, whether a deceased owner’s share goes through probate, and how the property can be sold.
Joint Tenancy With Right of Survivorship
All owners hold equal shares, and when one dies, that share passes automatically to the surviving owners without going through probate. Creating a joint tenancy requires specific survivorship language on the deed, equal shares received at the same time through the same deed, and equal rights to possess the whole property. Miss one of those elements and most states will treat the ownership as tenancy in common instead.
Tenancy in Common
Co-owners can hold unequal shares — one person 60 percent, another 40 percent, for instance. There is no right of survivorship. When a co-owner dies, that share passes through their estate, which usually means probate. If a deed names multiple grantees without specifying the form of ownership, most states default to tenancy in common.
Whichever structure fits your situation, say so on the deed, and for tenancy in common, state each grantee’s percentage. Ambiguous language invites disputes later.
Accepting and Recording the Deed
A quitclaim deed is not complete when the grantor signs it. The grantee has to accept the transfer, usually by taking possession of the signed deed or, more commonly, by recording it with the county recorder or registrar of deeds in the county where the property sits.
Recording puts the transfer into the public record and protects your interest against later claims by third parties. You bring or mail the signed and notarized deed to the recorder’s office, which stamps it with identifying information — a book and page number, an instrument number, or both — and returns the original. Many counties now accept electronic recording through title companies, attorneys, and sometimes individuals; e-recording has become widely available across the United States, though formats and access vary.
Some jurisdictions require extra paperwork at recording, such as a preliminary change of ownership report or a transfer tax affidavit. Missing forms can mean penalties or delays. Call the recorder’s office before you go and confirm exactly what documents and fees they need.
Costs the Grantee Usually Pays
- Recording fees vary widely. Some counties charge around $30 for a standard document, others $80 or more, with surcharges for document storage, GIS, or housing programs on top.
- Transfer taxes apply in many states and some localities, with rates running from roughly $1 to $50 per $1,000 of property value. About a third of states impose no state-level transfer tax. Family transfers or transfers with no consideration may qualify for exemptions; check the local rules.
- Notary fees for the grantor’s signature are set by state law and generally run from $2 to $25 per signature.
Fee schedules change, so verify current amounts with the county recorder before filing.
Tax Consequences You Should Know About
Gift Tax
If the grantor transfers the property to you for no consideration or for less than fair market value, the IRS treats the difference as a gift. For 2026, the annual gift tax exclusion is $19,000 per recipient.1Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026 Most real property is worth considerably more than that, so the grantor will generally need to file IRS Form 709 to report the gift.2Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 709 The grantor owes any gift tax, but if they fail to pay, the IRS can look to you as the grantee.
Carryover Basis Versus Stepped-Up Basis
This is the sleeper issue in most quitclaim gifts. If you receive the property as a gift while the grantor is alive, you generally take the grantor’s original cost basis, called a carryover basis.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 1015 – Basis of Property Acquired by Gifts and Transfers in Trust If a parent bought a house for $100,000 thirty years ago and quitclaims it to you now when it’s worth $400,000, your basis is $100,000. Selling at $400,000 produces a $300,000 taxable gain.
If the same property had instead passed to you after the owner’s death, you would receive a stepped-up basis equal to fair market value at the date of death.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 1014 – Basis of Property Acquired From a Decedent Basis of $400,000, immediate sale at $400,000, zero taxable gain. For a long-held, appreciated property, the difference between receiving it as a lifetime gift and receiving it through the estate can be tens of thousands of dollars. Before you accept a quitclaim gift, run that math.
Property Tax Reassessment
In many jurisdictions, a transfer — even between family members — triggers a reassessment of the property’s value for property tax purposes. If the property has been held a long time and local values have climbed, the annual tax bill can jump sharply. Some states exempt certain family transfers, such as parent-to-child, but the rules vary. Ask the county assessor what will happen before you record.
Mortgage Risk: The Due-on-Sale Clause
If the property still has a mortgage, recording a quitclaim deed can trigger the lender’s due-on-sale clause, which lets the lender demand immediate payment of the full remaining balance when ownership changes. If the loan can’t be paid, the lender can start foreclosure.
Federal law blocks that outcome for several common quitclaim scenarios. Under the Garn-St. Germain Act, a lender on a residential property with fewer than five units cannot enforce a due-on-sale clause when the transfer is:
- To the borrower’s spouse or children.
- The result of a divorce decree, legal separation, or property settlement giving the spouse ownership.
- To a relative following the borrower’s death, or by operation of law on the death of a joint tenant.
- Into a living trust where the borrower remains a beneficiary and keeps occupying the property.
5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 12 U.S. Code 1701j-3 – Preemption of Due-on-Sale Prohibitions6eCFR. 12 CFR 191.5 – Limitation on Exercise of Due-on-Sale Clauses
If your transfer doesn’t fit one of those exemptions, call the lender before recording and ask about your options. And remember: a quitclaim deed moves ownership but does not remove the grantor’s name from the mortgage. The original borrower stays liable for the loan unless the lender formally agrees to an assumption or you refinance in your own name.
Medicaid Look-Back Period
If the grantor transfers property to you for less than fair market value and later applies for Medicaid long-term care benefits, the transfer can trigger a penalty period during which the grantor is ineligible for coverage. Federal law sets a 60-month look-back: Medicaid reviews all asset transfers made in the five years before the application.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 1396p – Liens, Adjustments and Recoveries, and Transfers of Assets
The penalty hits the grantor, not you. But the practical fallout lands on the family. The ineligibility period is calculated by dividing the value of the transferred property by the state’s average monthly cost of nursing care, so a $200,000 property can translate into years without Medicaid coverage. If you’re receiving property through a quitclaim deed from an elderly relative, both of you should talk to an elder law attorney before signing anything.