California Quitclaim Deed

A quitclaim deed is exactly what it sounds like: it is the act of "quitting any claim" that a real estate owner has on a piece of property. They should not be used by inexperienced homeowners or landlords.

Quitclaim deeds have a reputation for being "quick and dirty", as they generally don't require any title work or the usual safeguards in place to protect the recipient in a real estate transaction. For example, if Bob is selling his house to Sue, normally Sue would want to make sure that there are no liens against the property, or clouds on the title, or any other encumbrance or deed restrictions. A title company would research the title history and property deed, to make sure the buyer is protected, before continuing with the transaction.

Quitclaim deeds offer no such protections, they can simply be recorded in the court and the property ownership changes hands. So while they are not appropriate for everyday real estate transfers, quitclaim deeds can be extremely useful in certain situations.

In a family inheritance situation, for example, a quitclaim deed may be useful for transferring partial ownership interests from one sibling to another. Or, consider a landlord who purchased a rental property in her personal name, but decides for asset protection reasons to transfer ownership to her LLC.

Generally speaking, quitclaim deeds are useful when both the granter and grantee know and trust each other, and an informal - but legal - transfer of ownership is desired.

Our California Quitclaim Deed conforms to California's legal requirements for deed recordation, and can provide a fast and relatively easy way of transferring ownership interest from person to another, or into a legal entity such as an LLC.