Connecticut Quitclaim Deed

Connecticut prints its quitclaim deed in the statute book, and the promise that travels with it is narrower than most buyers expect. Section 47-36g gives the words with quitclaim covenants the force of an agreement by the releasor, and by anyone claiming under the releasor, never to claim or demand any right or title to the premises again, each of them excluded and forever barred except as the deed sets forth. A closed door behind the grantor, and silence about everything in front of it.

A promise not to come back

The release comes from Section 47-36f, which gives a duly executed quitclaim the force of a deed of release and quitclaim of all the releasor's right, title, and interest in the premises, except as the deed otherwise limits, and without covenants of title. The same section lets it release a mortgage, an attachment, or a judgment lien of record. What passes is whatever the grantor turns out to hold, so an older defect in the chain travels with the land; the seisin and encumbrance covenants of Sections 47-36d and 47-36e belong to the warranty deed.

Two words in the heading that the fee counter reads

Section 47-36c supplies the short form these operative words come from, provides that the forms may be used and are sufficient, and calls them Statutory Form. That phrase stands in this deed's heading, because Section 7-34a ties statutory form fee treatment to an instrument clearly entitled that way. The same section adds a dollar where a signature carries no printed name beneath it, which is why printed name lines sit under every signature here, and five dollars where a deed omits the grantee mailing address of Section 47-5(b).

How this form is configured

Thirteen numbered sections take the parties and their addresses, the consideration, the town and legal description, the source of title by volume and page, the encumbrances, any additional provisions, and the conveyance in the statutory words. The party blocks are free form, and nothing about status, capacity, or co-ownership is preprinted: the grantor block takes one or two individuals as the parties describe themselves, and the grantee block takes one or two names followed by the words that set the manner of holding title, which the guide lays out. Execution runs to a signature block for each grantor, two subscribing witness blocks answering Section 47-5(a)(4), and a Section 1-34 acknowledgment certificate for each grantor, so two grantors may acknowledge on different dates or before different officers. One owner releasing an interest to a single grantee, and two owners conveying to two grantees who take with survivorship, are the count patterns this deed accommodates. An entity grantor states an authority this form does not carry, a fiduciary conveys on a Chapter 821a fiduciary form, an agent signs in the shape Section 47-5(c) prints, and three or more owners on a side, or a reserved life estate, present drafting this form omits.

Two witnesses, and an officer who states a title

Section 47-5(a) is specific: the deed is subscribed by the grantor, acknowledged as the grantor's free act and deed, and attested by two witnesses with their own hands, and Connecticut appellate authority treats the two witness rule as going to validity. The officer taking the acknowledgment comes from the Section 1-29 list, which reaches a notary public, a town clerk, a justice of the peace, and a Connecticut attorney, and Section 1-35 has that officer state a title and commission expiration date.

Filed with a town clerk, never a county

Connecticut keeps land records in the towns, so this quit claim deed reaches the clerk of the town where the parcel sits; Section 47-10 leaves an unrecorded conveyance good against no one but the grantor and the grantor's heirs. Section 7-24(f) puts the return addressee at the head of page one and calls for a three quarter inch blank margin around each page, while making nonconformance neither a refusal ground nor a priority defect. Recording runs seventy dollars for the first page and five dollars per page after it, and Section 12-497 keeps a taxable deed off the record until Form OP-236 reaches the clerk and the tax is paid.

The download holds three items: the deed as a blank fillable PDF, a completed example carried through all thirteen sections on a Wethersfield fact pattern, and a plain language guide covering the statutes behind each section, the ways grantees may take title, and the notarial and recording steps. The materials are informational and are not legal advice.