Cook County Quitclaim Deed (Interspousal) Form

Illinois homestead law wants two signatures on a deed of an occupied residence, and then names one exception: a conveyance running from an individual grantor to that grantor's own spouse. This interspousal quitclaim deed is arranged for exactly that transfer. One spouse, or one party to a civil union, holds the record title and signs as the only Grantor, and the other spouse is named as Grantee, either alone or beside the conveying spouse.

The exception the homestead statute names

Section 12-904 of the Code of Civil Procedure guards the homestead estate jointly: neither a waiver of it nor a conveyance of it holds up unless the owner and the owner's spouse have both signed. That same section then carves out the movement this form performs, providing that a conveyance from an individual grantor to that grantor's spouse is effectual to pass the expressed title whether or not the spouse joins. The clause itself still prints on the deed, because 765 ILCS 5/27 gives homestead language no effect unless an instrument states it expressly. What the exception takes away is the second signature line, never the clause.

Who signs, and what the deed recites

The form opens with one Grantor block and one Grantee block, applies the statutory words conveys and quit claims to the whole of the Grantor's interest, and finishes with a single signature line under one acknowledgment certificate whose text follows the substance of 765 ILCS 5/26, homestead clause included. Section 11 carries the relationship recital, stating that the Grantor and the Grantee are married to each other or are parties to a civil union with each other; 750 ILCS 75/20 puts civil union parties on the same statutory footing. Patterns that present this configuration include a residence acquired by one spouse before the wedding and afterward shared with the other, and a parcel moved to the spouse whose name goes on a new loan. The form is not set up for two record owners signing together, and it does not reach a homestead the couple already holds by the entirety, where 765 ILCS 1005/1c makes a deed effective only on both tenants' signatures.

Adding a spouse to the title

A spouse to spouse deed is also how an Illinois residence leaves sole ownership for a shared form, and two provisions of the Joint Tenancy Act let that happen in one recording. 765 ILCS 1005/1b permits the estate to be created even where the grantor is or may become one of the tenants, so no straw party holds title in the middle. 765 ILCS 1005/1c supplies the entirety estate for homestead property, open to spouses and civil union parties where the instrument identifies them as such and declares that the conveyance is made not as joint tenants or tenants in common but as tenants by the entirety. Section 9 is where that declaration goes; left empty on a deed to two people, the rule in 765 ILCS 1005/1 leaves them holding as tenants in common. The completed example fills it in for a Peoria County transfer and completes the notation under paragraph (e) of 35 ILCS 200/31-45, the entry for a deed whose actual consideration is under $100.

What a quit claim deed between spouses leaves in place

No covenant of title rides on this instrument, so every mortgage, judgment, lien, easement, and plat restriction already of record survives the transfer, and a Grantor who signed the note stays liable on the debt. Federal law softens one worry that follows a spousal transfer: 12 U.S.C. 1701j-3(d)(6) bars a lender from calling a residential loan secured by fewer than five dwelling units because the borrower's spouse became an owner. Classification is separate again, since 750 ILCS 5/503(b)(1) presumes property acquired during a marriage to be marital property for distribution purposes and reaches non marital property moved into co-ownership between the spouses, whatever form of title the deed used.

Three files arrive with the download: the interspousal quitclaim deed as a fillable PDF, the Peoria County example completed from the first blank through the notary's commission date, and a guide covering each numbered section along with the homestead, signing, and county recording rules. These materials describe Illinois law in general terms and are not legal advice; an Illinois attorney or title company can speak to a particular chain of title.