Highlands County Gift Deed (Individual Grantor to Charitable Organization) Form

This Florida Gift Deed conveys real property from one individual donor to a charitable organization that takes title in its own name, with the deed itself stating that the conveyance is a gift and that the organization pays nothing for it. The grantor is one natural person signing in the grantor's own right; the grantee is a not-for-profit corporation or other charitable organization named by its registered name, form, and state of organization.

A gift the organization takes in its own name

Florida land can be given to a charity by an ordinary deed, and Section 617.0302(9) of the Florida Statutes gives every Florida corporation not for profit the power to take real property by gift and to hold, improve, and use it. Section 2 prints the charitable-organization recital as fixed text and takes the organization's name in the style North Central Florida Land Conservancy, Inc., a Florida not-for-profit corporation, with the post-office address Section 695.26 requires for every grantee. The organization does not sign, and the conveyance runs to the organization and its successors and assigns rather than to heirs, the one adaptation an entity grantee calls for in the Section 689.02 form.

Why the deed names no dollar amount

Section 3 states that the conveyance is a gift made in consideration of the grantor's charitable and donative intent toward the grantee and the purposes for which the grantee is organized, and that no money or other valuable consideration has been or will be paid. Under Rule 12B-4.014(2) of the Florida Administrative Code, a conveyance of unencumbered realty as a gift is not subject to documentary stamp tax, while a deed that pairs a gift phrase with one dollar requires at least the minimum tax, and a gift of mortgaged property is taxed on the unpaid mortgage balance.

One signer, two witnesses, one certificate

The deed carries exactly one grantor signature block, two subscribing witness blocks with the printed name and post-office address line that Section 695.26 has required of every witness since January 1, 2024, and a single notary certificate drawn from the Section 695.25(1) short form, whose sentence lets the officer mark physical presence or online notarization and whose close leaves a 3 inch by 1.5 inch area for the rubber-stamp seal. The marital status line in Section 1 is a factual entry, and the deed carries no spousal joinder block: an unmarried donor, or a married donor giving land that is not the family homestead, presents the pattern this deed recites, while a married owner's gift of the homestead involves the spouse's joinder under Article X, Section 4(c) of the Florida Constitution and is a configuration this deed is not set up as. Two owners, a trustee or attorney-in-fact grantor, and a charitable trust that holds title through its trustee are likewise outside this form.

Warranty words from the statutory form

Section 6 conveys with the operative language of the statutory warranty deed: the grantor grants, bargains, sells, and conveys the property, and fully warrants the title and will defend it against the lawful claims of all persons whomsoever, which Section 689.03 gives the effect of full common-law covenants. A permitted exceptions entry in Section 5 holds the recorded easements and restrictions, current-year taxes, and any mortgage that stays on the land, so those matters stand outside the warranty. Under Chase Federal Savings and Loan Association v. Schreiber, 479 So. 2d 90 (Fla. 1985), a Florida deed passes legal title without valuable consideration.

Recording, stamps, and the exemption that comes afterward

The deed is recorded with the clerk of the circuit court of the county where the land lies, on pages formatted to Section 695.26, and the clerk collects any documentary stamp tax at recording, which for an unencumbered gift is none. What the deed does not do is grant the organization an ad valorem tax exemption; Chapter 196 makes that a separate application to the county property appraiser, filed by the owner of record on January 1 by March 1 of the year the exemption is claimed.

The package includes the fillable gift deed form, a completed example filled in for a realistic Alachua County donation to a land conservancy, and the guide that explains each section, the witnessing and notarization rules, and the documentary stamp tax treatment of a charitable gift. This description and the guide describe the form and the governing law in general terms; they are not legal advice.