District Of Columbia Trustee Deed

A trustee who sells or distributes District of Columbia real property held in a trust signs the deed in a capacity that is not the trustee's own. This form prepares a District of Columbia trustee deed under which one or two natural persons serving as trustee of a trust convey District real property to one or two grantees with special warranty, acting solely as trustee and not individually.

A fiduciary conveyance with a special warranty

The deed grants and conveys with special warranty, the phrase D.C. Code section 42-605 turns into a covenant to warrant and defend the property against the claims and demands of the grantor and everyone claiming by, through, or under the grantor, and it restates that covenant in the statute's own words. A grantee receives the trust's estate with the trustee standing behind the trustee's own acts, the posture a sale of trust property ordinarily takes in District practice, where the word grant alone carries no covenant. The deed makes the covenant, and every other undertaking in it, solely in the trustee's fiduciary capacity and says so, the disclosure that section 19-1310.10(a) of the Uniform Trust Code names as the condition on which a trustee is not personally liable on a contract made in that capacity.

The powers the deed relies on

The deed states that the property is held as property of the trust and that the conveyance is made under the terms of the trust and sections 19-1308.15 and 19-1308.16, the Uniform Trust Code's grant of a trustee's general powers and its list of specific ones, including the power to sell at public or private sale and the power to distribute trust property in divided or undivided interests. A purchaser dealing with the trustee in good faith and for value is protected under section 19-1310.12 without inquiring into the extent of the trustee's powers, and may be furnished a certification of trust under section 19-1310.13 in place of the trust instrument. The deed identifies the trust by name and date and carries a source-of-title line.

One trust, one or two trustees, one or two grantees

The form recites one trust and carries a free-form grantor block for one trustee, original or successor, or for two cotrustees who both sign; two sealed signature blocks and two acknowledgment certificates follow, so the second block is left blank when one trustee conveys. The grantee block takes one or two natural persons with whatever ownership designation they take, and the guide describes the District's vesting forms, including the tenancy in common that section 42-516(a) makes the default even for spouses. The trust may be revocable or irrevocable, and the consideration section records whether the deed is a sale for a price or a distribution for none. A trustee selling a rowhouse to purchasers under a contract of sale, and two cotrustees of an irrevocable trust conveying a parcel to its two beneficiaries, present the patterns this deed recites. The form is not set up as a deed from a corporate trustee, from three or more cotrustees, by an attorney-in-fact for a trustee, into a trust, to an entity grantee, under a court decree, or after a foreclosure sale under a deed of trust.

Sealed, acknowledged as trustee, and taxed on the consideration

Section 42-306(b) makes signature and seal the elements of a District deed, and each signature line on this form ends with the printed scroll [Seal.] the statutory forms use. Each certificate carries the representative-capacity short form of section 1-1231.15(2), under which the record is acknowledged by a named individual as Trustee of a named trust, with the capacity fixed and the trust a blank the officer completes; an acknowledgment taken in another state is given effect under section 1-1231.10. At recording, Form FP-7/C accompanies the deed, and the recordation and transfer taxes fall on the price at 1.1 percent each under $400,000 and 1.45 percent each at or above it, or on fair market value where no consideration is paid unless an exemption paragraph reaches the transfer; the guide walks through the revocable-trust paragraphs of sections 42-1102 and 47-902 and the 30-day recording deadline of section 47-1431.

The package includes the fillable form, a completed example filled in for a realistic District of Columbia sale by two cotrustees, and the guide that walks through every numbered section, the trustee's powers, the deed taxes, and recording. This description and the guide describe the form and the governing statutes in general terms; they are not legal advice.