Howard County Warranty Deed Form

An Iowa warranty deed set up for a single individual grantor puts the state's strongest title promise behind one signature. The form recites one owner of record conveying Iowa real estate, a grantee section open to any ownership form Iowa recognizes, one signature line with the printed name Iowa recording law expects beneath it, and one notarial acknowledgment certificate in the wording of Iowa Code chapter 9B.

A warranty carried in one statutory sentence

Iowa prints its deed forms in the code itself. Iowa Code section 558.19 supplies a short conveyance in fee and turns it into a warranty deed by adding a single sentence: and I warrant the title against all persons whomsoever. This form carries that statutory sentence verbatim. It is the full covenant a buyer searching for a general warranty deed has in mind, a warranty that reaches the whole chain of title rather than only the grantor's own period of ownership. Two companion statutes keep the instrument short: Iowa Code section 557.2 makes technical words of inheritance unnecessary to pass a fee simple, and section 557.3 passes the grantor's entire interest unless the deed expresses a contrary intent.

One grantor of record, one certificate

The grantor section collects one individual's name, mailing address, and marital status, and the deed closes with one signature block and one acknowledgment certificate in the individual short form of Iowa Code section 9B.16, completed by the notarial officer with the statutory sentence, this record was acknowledged before me. The single-grantor pattern appears in the record where an unmarried owner conveys alone, and where a married owner conveys Iowa real estate that is not the couple's homestead. Iowa Code section 561.13 makes a married owner's conveyance of the homestead invalid unless the spouse executes the same or a like instrument, a two-signature execution pattern this form is not set up as; the guide describes that rule, its statutory exceptions, and the Iowa Supreme Court decision applying it, with citations.

A first page the recorder can index

Iowa Code section 331.606B gives county recorders detailed first-page standards, and the form is drawn to them: a full three inches of blank space at the top of page one reserved for the recorder, then the preparer statement, the tax statement address, the return address, and the grantor and grantee names, all below the reserved band, with the legal description carried on page two under the statute's page-reference rule. The first page also prints the groundwater hazard statement language of Iowa Code section 558.69, the exact sentence that lets a transfer with none of the listed conditions record without a separate hazard statement form; the guide explains when that sentence applies and what accompanies the declaration of value when it does not.

Recording with the county recorder

The deed records with the county recorder of the county where the real estate is located, over the counter or through the statewide Iowa Land Records e-submission service. A taxable sale pays Iowa real estate transfer tax of eighty cents for each five hundred dollars of consideration above the first five hundred, noted by the recorder on the face of the deed, and a declaration of value accompanies the deed unless an exception applies; the recorder refuses a conveyance presented without a required declaration. The guide walks through the fee schedule, the signed exemption statement for transfers excepted from the tax, and the county auditor's transfer fee that follows a recorded deed.

The download delivers the fill-in-the-blank Iowa warranty deed form, a completed example showing one filled-in version built on a Polk County fact pattern, and a section-by-section guide to completing, signing, and recording the deed; nothing else is included in the package. The materials describe Iowa law in general terms and are informational only, not legal advice.