What is a Quick Claim Deed

Post on: 7 Май, 2015 No Comment

What is a Quick Claim Deed

First of all, there is no such thing as a quick deed or a quick claim deed. What you are thinking about is the process of conveying an interest in real property using what is called a quit claim deed.

In any event, to try to answer the question you appear to be asking, let me give you a little bit of background information. The two most commonly used instruments used to convey title to real estate are warranty deeds and quit claim deeds. In a purchase and sale, folks typically use warranty deeds. This is because the seller who transfers title with a warranty deed makes certain guarantees when doing so. The most important of these guarantees is that the seller has an ownership interest in the property and has the unimpaired right to sell that ownership interest. To make sure that you, as a seller, arent making any promises you cant keep you will typically provide a title insurance policy for the new owner to back up the guarantees you make in the warranty deed.

A quit claim deed, on the other hand, implies no such promises. When you transfer title to real estate with a quit claim deed, you basically are telling the transferee, here, I am handing over what interest I may have in this piece of property. There may or may not be liens. I may have a distant cousin out there who claims that they own part of the property. I dont know and Im not making any promises. Im just giving you what I have, whatever that may be.

In any event, based on your question, and others Ive seen like it, somewhere at some time someone got the idea that transferring ownership of real estate through a quit claim deed was a faster, simpler or more convenient process. That perception is not necessarily the case. The real reason for transferring an ownership in real estate via a quit claim is to avoid liability for making the guarantees and promises implicit in a warranty deed.

Getting back to the specifics of your question, it looks like you are trying to find out whether you can transfer your responsibility for a mortgage to someone else by using a quit claim deed. The answer is NO. This is because a mortgage is an obligation. which as far as the law is concerned, is something you cannot transfer to someone else. Someone else, under the right circumstances (which usually includes the lenders permission) might be able to assume the responsibility, but you cannot unilaterally transfer it. Similarly, you might be able to transfer your ownership interest in a property using a quit claim deed. However, the person who you transfer the property to will take the property subject to the mortgage. Furthermore, your transfer of ownership does not relieve you of any obligations and responsibilities you have arising out of the note and the mortgage. You should definitely hire a lawyer!!

Answered almost 7 years ago


Categories
Tags
Here your chance to leave a comment!