Maine Quitclaim Deed (Divorce)

In Maine a divorce judgment can do a deed's work by itself: recording the decree, or an abstract of it, carries the force and effect of a quitclaim deed releasing all interest in the real estate the decree describes. Former spouses sign deeds anyway, and this form is built for that signature. It is a quitclaim deed without covenant, Maine's release deed, configured so one former spouse releases an interest in a Maine parcel to the other and names the judgment standing behind it.

Two records reaching one interest

19-A M.R.S. Section 953 is why a divorce deed here looks the way it does. Subsection 7 makes rights in the other party's real estate effective against a person when the decree or an abstract of it reaches the registry for the county where the land sits, and it fixes the minimum contents of that filing, from the case caption through any provision the court intended as an encumbrance. Subsection 5 has the decree itself name who records that document. A deed sits beside all of it, putting the release in the releasing party's own hand, and Section 3 pins the judgment down by court, docket number, date it became final, and the book and page of any recorded judgment or abstract.

A name the registry index may not carry

The grantor block comes in two parts, current name first and record title name second, because a judgment can restore a former surname while the index still carries the married one. Section 953 meets that problem from the other side, requiring a recorded decree or abstract to carry post-decree name changes. The rest is one grantor and one grantee. One individual former spouse signs personally. Recordability turns on the signer's name being typed or printed under that signature, the 33 M.R.S. Section 651-A condition, and a single certificate in the 4 M.R.S. Section 1917 individual capacity short form, taken before an officer listed in 33 M.R.S. Section 203, closes the execution. The other former spouse is named as grantee with the mailing address 33 M.R.S. Section 456 directs. Shapes arriving this way include former joint tenants leaving one name on the record title, and a release of marital interests in a home titled in one name throughout. Two grantors signing side by side, a sale to a buyer who was no party to the judgment, and deeds signed by agents, companies, trustees or personal representatives present configurations this form does not recite.

What divorce already did, what a release still moves

18-C M.R.S. Section 2-804 reaches survivorship at divorce, severing former spouses' joint tenancy into equal tenancies in common and conditioning third party effect of that severance on a recorded writing declaring it. Warranty is answered in Maine by the covenant phrase a deed prints, not the word in its title. This deed carries no covenant phrase at all, the posture of Form 4 in the 33 M.R.S. Section 775 appendix, and Sections 161 and 771 supply what the word release reaches. The operative sentence borrows the words Section 953 uses for a recorded judgment, releasing the grantor's interest whether it is in fee or by statute, together with any claim of marital interest. Recorded mortgages, liens and easements stay fastened to the parcel, listed above a printed line stating that the listing creates no covenant.

The exemption, and the paperwork it does not lift

36 M.R.S. Section 4641-C, subsection 4 exempts deeds between spouses in divorce proceedings from transfer tax. Exemption is not relief from paper: 36 M.R.S. Section 4641-D still sends a declaration of value to the counter, with the reason stated on it and specifically identified as Maine Revenue Services directs. Where an equity payment passes between the parties, the rate table returns, at 2 dollars and 20 cents for every 500 dollars of value below the million dollar line, borne half by each side. Recording costs the statutory 40 dollars for an ordinary submitter.

The download holds the blank deed as a fillable PDF, a plain language guide to the ten numbered sections, and a completed example filled in for a Kennebec County parcel where a former spouse releases a platted Hallowell lot. A recorded decree or abstract under Section 953 is prepared through the court and recorded on its own, and is not included here. Searchers reach this instrument as a divorce quitclaim deed, a quit claim deed after divorce, or a divorce property settlement deed; the materials are informational and are not legal advice.