Howard County Quitclaim Deed (Individual Grantor) Form

This Iowa quitclaim deed is set up for one individual grantor: a single person conveying whatever interest he or she holds in Iowa real estate, without any warranty of title. The form carries one grantor signature line, a relinquishment section for the spouse of a married grantor, and the first page items an Iowa county recorder checks before accepting a conveyance.

A release of whatever interest the grantor holds

Iowa Code section 558.19 gives the quitclaim its statutory shape: for a stated consideration, the grantor quitclaims all of the grantor's interest in the described real estate. The instrument, sometimes searched as a quit claim deed or quitclaim form, releases the interest the grantor actually holds, whatever that turns out to be, and makes no promise that the title is good. Existing mortgages, liens, easements, and unpaid taxes stay with the property, and the grantee receives exactly the position the grantor occupied.

That mechanism explains where the quitclaim appears in Iowa records: transfers between family members, transfers carrying out a dissolution decree, co-owners consolidating fractional interests in one name, and releases that clear a possible interest from a title. The deed performs its act in a sectioned layout, with the operative quitclaim language printed in full and blanks only for the facts of the transfer.

One grantor, a spousal relinquishment, and two certificates

The form recites exactly one individual grantor, named with a mailing address in the grantor section, and one grantee entry that accepts a single grantee or co-grantees with a vesting designation. A dedicated section then carries the relinquishment of dower, homestead, and distributive share rights by the grantor's spouse. Iowa Code section 561.13 conditions the validity of a homestead conveyance by a married owner on the spouse's execution of the same or a like instrument, and the Iowa Supreme Court has held a homestead deed signed without the required spousal execution invalid as to both spouses. A married grantor's spouse signs the relinquishment section; for an unmarried grantor, the section simply stays blank.

Each signer has a separate acknowledgment certificate in the Iowa Code section 9B.16 short form, so the grantor and a joining spouse may acknowledge on different dates or before different notaries. The form is not set up for entity grantors, for two grantors conveying together, or for trustees and other fiduciaries; those conveyances recite different execution patterns.

The first page an Iowa recorder looks for

Iowa Code section 331.606B reserves the top three inches of the first page for the recorder and places three information items on the first page of every instrument of conveyance: the preparer's name, address, and telephone number, the taxpayer's name and complete mailing address, and the return address. The form prints all three in labeled blocks above the title, and the printed name lines under each signature satisfy the name under signature rule.

The first page also carries the exact groundwater hazard language of Iowa Code section 558.69(8A), the statement that lets a transfer with no listed condition record without a separate groundwater hazard form, and an optional transfer tax exemption section that serves as the signed exemption statement Iowa Code section 428A.4 accepts for conveyances excepted from the transfer tax. The guide walks through the declaration of value, the transfer tax computation, the recorder's refusal rules, the auditor's transfer fee, and electronic recording through Iowa Land Records, county by county mechanics included.

What the download delivers

The purchase delivers the fillable blank deed, a completed example filled in for a Polk County transfer, and a plain language guide to completing, signing, and recording the deed in Iowa. The materials are informational and are not legal advice.