Quit Claim Deeds in Spokane Washington

Hi, Hector Quiroga here with the Quiroga Law Office. Today I’d like to talk to you about Quit Claim Deeds, transfer of real estate or property through these vehicles that the law allows us to do.

What’s a Quit Claim Deed and how does it work? A Quit Claim Deed is basically saying, “Look, I’m going to transfer to you all of my interest on this property.” The nice thing about it is, the person transferring doesn’t have to state what interest there might be. There may be no interest, there might be just some interest to possession, there might be an interest to be paid back, there might be a right to harvest the property, like timber for example; or there may be nothing.

There might just be litigation; a chance to get at some value somewhere, so a Quit Claim Deed really is saying, “Look, I’m going to give you what I have, but I don’t know what I have, so whatever I have, now it’s yours. It’s not mine anymore, but it’s yours,” so you’re going to go ahead and do it, so that’s what a Quit Claim Deed is.

There is only one thing, one requirement or one, I suppose, guarantee that the person transferring gives, and we call that the Guarantee of Seisin, which is fancy for, “I can’t interfere with it,” so if I give you a Quit Claim Deed on my property and you’re trying to access the property or you take it and you’re trying to execute something on that property, I can go back and block you from doing that. I would be violating the Quit Claim Deed because that’s exactly what I did; I gave you whatever I had, so now you have it and you take that property interest and you can execute on it anyway you want to and I can just get in the middle of it, so that’s the only thing that is going to stall the transfer. The person who is making the transfer is stopping you from enforcing that vehicle.

Now, a Quit Claim Deed touches real estate, so it has to be in writing and that’s under the Statute of Fraud, which requires any land transaction to have a writing to be properly drafted and in any transfer of property, a taxable event happens. It is important to have tax advice. Strong Quit Claim Deeds could waive any taxable transaction. It might be just a little excise tax affidavit fee which is as low as $10 or $5 at times, it depends, but there will be some tax owed and again, it has to also be recorded, so you want to make sure that the deed is recorded that way. People know that there is a new owner and that person who has a new obligation as the owner, but this person is making a disclaimer on that obligation.

What is important to note here is that a Quit Claim Deed transfers value, it transfers value, not liabilities. In other words, let’s say I transferred you my home; I’m basically giving you title of my home, but I’m discharging my obligation to the lender. If I have a mortgage, I’m still responsible for that mortgage. The mortgage is a contract in which you sign; whether or not you give this Quit Claim Deed to somebody else, the mortgage doesn’t attach with it, so a common misconception; I’m just going to Quit Claim you the house and I see these in family cases. I’m just going to Quit Claim to her my house and she’s got a mortgage, she can take care of it. Not so quickly; you can Quit Claim your interest, which means when the mortgage is paid, that person is going to get the title, not you, but you still are responsible for the mortgage, so that’s what a Quit Claim, in a sense does, with the requirements, what obligations, what defenses there could be.