Effingham County Warranty Deed (Individual Grantor) Form

Georgia is an express warranty state: a deed carries no warranty of title unless the deed states one in words. This Georgia Warranty Deed prepares a conveyance by one individual grantor that states the full covenant, a general warranty of title against the claims of all persons, the wording that carries the statutory scope of O.C.G.A. Section 44-5-62. The first page reserves the clerk of superior court's three inch recording margin and prints the return address block that O.C.G.A. Section 44-2-14(b) places at the top of the first page.

A warranty the deed says out loud

O.C.G.A. Section 44-5-61 provides that no warranty of title is implied in a Georgia deed or bill of sale, so the difference between a warranty deed and a bare conveyance is the express language on the face of the instrument. The general warranty in this form reaches back through the whole chain of title and carries the covenants of a right to sell, of quiet enjoyment, and of freedom from encumbrances; under O.C.G.A. Section 44-5-63 it covers title defects even where the purchaser knew of them at the time of the deed. Because the warranty is express, its boundaries are also written on the face: a dedicated exceptions section lists the matters the conveyance and the warranty run subject to, such as recorded easements, restrictive covenants, and current-year taxes, and the deed warrants against everything outside that list.

Signed before two witnesses who watch

Georgia deed execution is attestation based. O.C.G.A. Section 44-5-30 calls for the grantor's signature to be attested by an officer listed in O.C.G.A. Section 44-2-15, ordinarily a notary public, and by one other witness, and Georgia title practice reads attestation literally: the officer and the unofficial witness both watch the grantor sign, then sign the deed themselves. The form is built around that formality. It carries the grantor's signature block, an unofficial witness block with a printed name line for the clerk's index, and an officer certificate reciting that the deed was signed, sealed, and delivered in the officer's presence, the attestation substance a Georgia examiner reads the execution page for.

One grantor, and the grantee patterns Georgia recognizes

The form recites exactly one individual grantor, a single natural person conveying personally; deeds signed by co-owners, trustees, entities, or agents under a power of attorney present capacity recitals this form does not carry. A married grantor who is the sole record owner signs alone: Georgia is a common-law property state with no community property and no dower or curtesy, and Georgia recording law supplies no general requirement that a spouse outside the title join an ordinary lifetime conveyance. On the receiving side, the grantee section accepts one or more grantees. Georgia's default for co-grantees is tenancy in common under O.C.G.A. Section 44-6-120, with survivorship arising only from the express joint tenancy words O.C.G.A. Section 44-6-190 requires, placed after the grantee names; the guide walks through each recognized form of title.

The PT-61 and the flat $25 fee

Recording happens with the clerk of superior court of the county where the land lies, at the statewide flat fee of $25.00 per deed under O.C.G.A. Section 15-6-77(f), whatever the page count. A deed presented for recording travels with a PT-61 Real Estate Transfer Tax form, completed electronically through the GSCCCA eFiling system, and with payment of the transfer tax of $1.00 for the first $1,000.00 of consideration or value and $0.10 for each additional $100.00, unless a statutory exemption such as a deed of gift applies. Since January 1, 2025, a party recording without one of the listed professional filers submits through the GSCCCA self-filer e-recording channel with identity verification, part of Georgia's 2024 deed-fraud legislation.

The download delivers the blank warranty deed form as a fillable PDF, a completed example showing the entire document filled in for a realistic Cobb County fact pattern, and a plain-language guide that walks through every numbered section, the attestation formalities, and the PT-61 and transfer tax mechanics. The materials describe Georgia law in general terms and are informational only, not legal advice.