Saint Johns County Special Warranty Deed (Personal Representative Grantor) Form

A personal representative's deed conveys Florida land the person signing it never owned. The estate holds the title, and the authority to sell lives in the probate file: a power of sale in the will, or an order of the court. This Florida special warranty deed prepares that conveyance by one personal representative under section 733.613 of the Florida Statutes, with a covenant of title that begins on the date of the decedent's death and reaches nothing earlier.

A warranty that begins at the date of death

Florida writes no statutory form for this deed, so the covenant is the deed's own express language. The grantor covenants, solely in the capacity of personal representative, to warrant and defend the title against the lawful claims of all persons claiming by, through, or under the estate or the personal representative in that capacity, arising on or after the date of death stated in Section 1, but against none other. The deed states that it is not made under the section 689.02 statutory form, so the full covenants section 689.03 attaches to that form do not arise by implication, and that liability on the covenant is the estate's, not the personal representative's.

Authority that lives in the probate file

Section 733.613 supplies two paths, and Section 2 of the deed identifies the one the conveyance rests on. Under subsection (2), when the will confers a specific power to sell real property or a general power to sell any asset, the personal representative may sell without court authorization or confirmation. Under subsection (1), when the estate is intestate or the will confers no usable power of sale, no title passes until the court authorizes or confirms the sale, and no bona fide purchaser is required to examine proceedings before the order of sale. Because section 28.223 directs the clerk to record the admitted will, the letters of administration, and orders affecting real property, the authority carries a recording reference of its own, which the deed cites. Section 733.613(3) describes what the purchaser receives under either path: title free of claims of estate creditors and entitlements of beneficiaries, with existing mortgages and liens unaffected.

One fiduciary, one certificate, and no spouse

The form recites exactly one grantor: the personal representative of one decedent's estate, identified by name, decedent, date of death, court, probate file, and date of letters, with a fixed recital that the grantor signs solely in that capacity and not individually. One signature block, headed GRANTOR, AS PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE, carries lines for the printed name, date, estate, and post office address; two subscribing witness blocks follow; and one acknowledgment certificate closes the deed, in the section 695.25(6) short form Florida prints for a public officer, trustee, or personal representative, with a reserved area for the rubber-stamp seal section 117.05 places beside or below the notary's signature. The form carries no marital status recital and no spousal joinder block; the fiduciary's own marriage plays no part in a sale of estate property. A personal representative selling the decedent's rental house under a general power of sale, and one selling an intestate estate's vacant lot after the court enters its order, each present the pattern this deed recites. Co-personal representatives signing together, a distribution deed to a devisee, and a seller signing personally, for a company, or as trustee each present a different architecture than this deed carries.

Witnesses, addresses, and the documentary stamp

The personal representative signs before two subscribing witnesses under section 689.01, and each witness's printed name and post office address have been recording data under section 695.26 since January 1, 2024; the form carries those lines, the preparer and grantee data the same section names, and the blank 3 inch by 3 inch clerk's space at the top right of the first page. Documentary stamp tax is collected at recording: a sale to a purchaser is taxed on the consideration at 70 cents per $100 in every county but Miami-Dade, while Rule 12B-4.014(4) of the Florida Administrative Code treats a deed given by a personal representative in accordance with the terms of a will as not taxable; the guide walks through both.

The download includes the deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example worked through a Pinellas County sale under a will's power of sale, and a plain-language guide that treats every numbered section, the probate authority, and the signing and recording steps. The materials describe Florida law in general terms and are not legal advice.