Highlands County Special Warranty Deed (Individual) Form

A Florida special warranty deed conveys real property with a covenant that has a boundary. The grantor promises to warrant and defend the title against the lawful claims of all persons claiming by, through, or under the grantor, but against none other. Whatever happened in the chain of title before the grantor's ownership sits outside the promise. This form prepares that deed for one individual grantor, with the execution and recording elements Florida law attaches to every conveyance.

A Warranty That Stops at the Grantor's Ownership

Florida's warranty spectrum runs from the statutory warranty deed, whose covenants reach the entire history of the title, to the quitclaim deed, which carries no covenant at all. The special warranty deed occupies the ground between: a present conveyance in which the grantor stands behind the title only for the grantor's own period of ownership. An easement a prior owner granted, or a defect created three transfers back, belongs to the title examination and the title insurance, not to the grantor's covenant. A lien or claim the grantor created, on the other hand, remains squarely inside the warranty unless the deed lists it as a permitted exception, which is why the form's subject-to section does real work on this instrument.

Drafted Around the Statutory Form

No Florida statute prescribes a special warranty deed. What the statutes do prescribe is the opposite pull: under sections 689.02 and 689.03, Florida Statutes, a deed substantially in the statutory form is held to be a warranty deed with full common-law covenants. This form therefore states its limited covenant expressly, in the by, through, or under language Florida title practice has used for generations, and declares that the deed is not to be construed as a statutory warranty deed, so the limitation controls.

Two Witnesses, a Statutory Certificate, and the Homestead Question

Florida execution has two layers. Section 689.01 requires the grantor to sign in the presence of two subscribing witnesses, and since January 1, 2024, each witness's printed name and post-office address belong on the instrument for recording. Section 695.03 then requires an acknowledgment, and the form reproduces the statutory short form certificate, including the checkboxes for physical presence or online notarization. Because Article X, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution lets a married owner alienate homestead only when the spouse joins, the deed carries a conditional joining spouse section, with its own witness blocks and acknowledgment, completed only when the property is a married grantor's homestead.

Recording With the Clerk

The clerk of the circuit court records the deed in the county where the property lies. The first page reserves the 3 inch by 3 inch clerk space at the top right, the preparer's name and post-office address appear as section 695.26 requires, and documentary stamp tax under section 201.02, 70 cents per $100 of consideration outside Miami-Dade County, is paid at recording. An unrecorded deed binds the parties but gives way to creditors and later purchasers without notice.

The download includes the deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example built on an Orange County fact pattern, and a plain-language guide that walks through every section, the witness and notary blocks, and the recording steps. The materials describe Florida law in general terms and are not legal advice.