Alabama Warranty Deed

In Alabama, three words carry covenants of their own. Under Ala. Code § 35-4-271, the words grant, bargain, and sell in a fee conveyance are read as express covenants of indefeasible fee simple title and of quiet enjoyment, whether or not anyone writes them down. The same section is where a general warranty deed earns its name, because the covenants the statute supplies stop at encumbrances the grantor did or suffered and at claims arising through the grantor. This Alabama Warranty Deed writes the wider promise out in full.

Where the statute stops and the deed keeps going

The conveyance and warranty section states four covenants in express terms: that the grantor is lawfully seized in fee simple, that the grantor has a good right to sell and convey, that the property is free of encumbrances other than the matters the deed lists, and that the grantor will forever defend the title against the lawful claims of all persons. That last covenant is the one that reaches back through every prior owner, and it is what separates a general warranty from the narrower promises an Alabama deed can carry. The exceptions blank draws the line: current ad valorem taxes, recorded easements, and restrictions entered there are lifted out of the covenant against encumbrances, and a matter left off stays inside the promise. The conveyance runs on the statutory words, grant, bargain, sell, and convey, so the instrument carries the express covenants and the statutory ones together.

One block for the grantors, one for the grantees

The party sections are open blocks rather than preprinted party patterns. The grantor block holds one or two natural persons signing in their own names, the grantee block does the same, and the form accepts any combination of the two. Nothing about marital status, capacity, or co-ownership is printed in advance; those words come from the person completing the deed, and the guide covers what each blank receives. The instrument carries two signature blocks and two acknowledgment certificates, one for each person signing as grantor, and a deed made by a single grantor leaves the second block and its certificate blank. Configurations that turn on recited authority sit outside this form: an entity grantor, a trustee conveying under a trust, a signer acting under a power of attorney, and any conveyance with three or more owners on a side each carry authority recitals and certificate forms this deed does not lay out.

What the probate office reads before the stamp

Alabama conditions acceptance for record on content, not only on format. A conveyance is not accepted for record unless it states the marital status of each individual grantor (Ala. Code § 35-4-73), so each name in the grantor block is followed by that entry, and a knowingly false one is a misdemeanor. Where the legal description points to a plat, Ala. Code § 35-4-74 asks for the plat itself, its book and recording office, or a metes and bounds description. The deed closes with the name and address of the person who prepared it, an endorsement Alabama makes a condition of recordation (Ala. Code §§ 35-4-110 and 35-4-113). Filing happens with the judge of probate of the county where the land lies, Alabama's recorder of deeds, which collects a recording tax of fifty cents for each five hundred dollars of the value conveyed, or fraction of it, plus sales validation information on Department of Revenue Form RT-1 or in the deed.

How two grantees take title in Alabama

Alabama's rule for co-owners is short and consequential. Under Ala. Code § 35-4-7, a conveyance to two or more grantees with no survivorship words leaves them holding as tenants in common, and survivorship arises only where the instrument says so or otherwise shows that intent. Alabama has no tenancy by the entirety, so spouses take title under the same rule as any other pair of grantees. The designation follows the grantee names in the grantee block, and the completed example shows a survivorship designation written in that position.

The package is built around one Alabama property deed form and everything it takes to finish it: the fillable warranty deed, a completed example filled in for a Shelby County conveyance, and a guide covering the statutory framework, each numbered section, the signing and notarial rules, and recording with the judge of probate. The materials are informational and are not legal advice.