Arkansas Quitclaim Deed (Divorce)

An Arkansas divorce decree does most of the title work before anyone signs a deed. It dissolves the estate by the entirety the couple held, designates the specific property each party takes, and bars every later claim of dower or curtesy between them. What it does not do is reach the county's grantor and grantee index. This quitclaim deed does that, configured for one party to a divorce action conveying to the other party, with no warranty of title.

What the decree settles before the deed is drawn

Arkansas Code Annotated Section 9-12-317(a) dissolves any estate by the entirety or survivorship held by the parties when a circuit court renders a final decree of divorce, unless the order specifically provides otherwise, and leaves them as tenants in common. Then comes the sentence a title examiner cares about: under Section 9-12-315(a)(3)(C), that order, judgment, or decree bars all claims of dower or curtesy in the lands then owned or afterward acquired by either party. All of it happens by operation of law, in a courthouse file rather than in the land records.

A deed that carries no release paragraph

Deeds signed by married Arkansans commonly carry a relinquishment of dower, curtesy, and homestead right. This one carries none, and the omission is the point. In O'Marra v. MacKool (2005), the Arkansas Supreme Court restated a long standing reading of Section 18-12-402: a spouse cannot release dower in favor of the other spouse but only by joining in a deed to a third party, and an agreement between the two of them does not convey the right. Between parties to a divorce action the statutory bar does that work instead, so the deed sticks to moving the record interest, and Section 3 names the court, the case number, and the decree or property settlement agreement behind the transfer.

Language chosen to promise nothing

An Arkansas quitclaim deed is defined by the words it avoids. Section 18-12-102 reads covenants of seisin, of freedom from grantor caused encumbrance, and of quiet enjoyment into a deed resting on the phrase grant, bargain and sell, absent express limiting words. This instrument conveys instead by remise, release, and forever quitclaim, and says so on its face. Mortgages, judgment liens, easements, and severed minerals survive the filing and bind the grantee.

One signer, one certificate, a grantee who signs nothing

The form recites two individuals and one divorce action. The grantor signs once, two disinterested witnesses subscribe under Section 18-12-104, and one acknowledgment certificate follows, because the grantor is the only person whose signature is acknowledged. The grantee signs nothing, since Section 10 states a statutory exemption rather than the transfer tax certification the code assigns to a grantee. No vesting line appears, the deed naming a single grantee who often consolidates the undivided half the decree left in each name. The record shows the pattern: a decree awarding the residence to one party while the other releases the half interest Section 9-12-317 created, and a filing made years later when a refinance turns up a former spouse still on the title. A deed executed by two owners together, one signed for a company or under a power of attorney, and any conveyance with no divorce action behind it sit outside these recitals.

The exemption Arkansas wrote for this transfer

Arkansas taxes transfers at three dollars and thirty cents per thousand dollars of consideration above one hundred dollars, and Section 26-60-110 keeps a taxable instrument off the record without stamps or a certification. Section 26-60-102(7) lifts this transfer out of the tax: an instrument given by one party in a divorce action to the other party as a division of marital property, whether by agreement or order of the court. The revenue rule at 26 CAR Section 166-102 counts separate maintenance the same way. Section 10 prints that statutory sentence and names the exemption, which under Section 26-60-107 lets the deed record without an affidavit. Since August 5, 2025, Act 752 has conditioned a counter or mail filing on the grantor's photo identification.

Inside this package

The download holds this Arkansas quitclaim deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example worked through a Benton County transfer following a decree, and a plain language guide to the blanks, the formalities, and recording. Shoppers reach it searching for a divorce quit claim deed, a quick claim deed after divorce, or an Arkansas deed moving a marital home to one spouse. The materials are informational and are not legal advice.