Maine Quitclaim Deed (Married Grantor with Non-Owner Spouse Joinder)

A Maine deed can carry one grantor and two signatures. That is the configuration of this quitclaim deed without covenant: the married person whose name alone stands on the record title releases the property, and that person's spouse signs a joinder that conveys no ownership yet gives up something. 33 M.R.S. Section 772-A makes the second signature worth collecting, and it says plainly that the joining spouse need not be named as a grantor at the top of the deed.

What the second signature actually does

Section 772-A attaches its effect to a line inside the testimonium clause, the closing sentence just above the signatures. Language in the form "[name] (wife or husband) of said Grantor, joins as Grantor and releases all rights by descent and all other rights," or similar language, conveys any and all interests of the joining spouse in the property the deed describes. This form prints that language in Section 10, so the release sits where the statute names it and the granting section above stays clean.

The joinder releases rather than conveys. It does not make the spouse a record owner, and since Maine abolished dower and curtesy in 18-C M.R.S. Section 2-111, it is not a dower release. It reaches the rights by descent and other marital rights a spouse can hold without appearing in the registry index.

Why an owner collects a signature the law may not demand

Maine does not condition every deed on spousal joinder. Under 33 M.R.S. Section 480 an owner may convey without the spouse's signature, free of any claim or right of the non-owner spouse, unless the transfer requires that signature under 18-C M.R.S. Section 2-208, subsection 1, or the non-owner spouse has recorded a claim of marital interest under 19-A M.R.S. Section 953 with a divorce action pending. A later claim runs against the sale proceeds, not the land.

A deed carrying the Section 772-A release answers both questions on the face of the instrument, where a title examiner reading the record years afterward finds the answer rather than researching a marriage. The probate side is untouched: the elective share and homestead allowance are given up through the separate written waiver of 18-C M.R.S. Section 2-213, never through a deed.

A release, with nothing promised

The instrument is the without-covenant member of the Section 775 statutory appendix, titled Quitclaim Deed Without Covenant or Release Deed. Under 33 M.R.S. Sections 161 and 771 the word release carries all the estate the grantor could pass by any other form of deed, with no covenant attached. The deed says as much, and its encumbrance section carries a printed line stating that the listing creates no covenant.

One grantor, two signature blocks

The form recites one Grantor, married, holding the record title, and one spouse joining to release. Each signer has a labeled signature block carrying the typed or printed name that 33 M.R.S. Section 651-A makes a condition of recordability, plus an acknowledgment certificate in the 4 M.R.S. Section 1917 individual-capacity short form, taken under 33 M.R.S. Section 203. Maine law does not require one certificate per signer; the second is a layout choice that works whether the couple appears together, as the example shows, or apart. Record titles held by two owners jointly, by an unmarried sole owner, or by a company, trustee or personal representative present configurations this deed does not recite.

Recording and the transfer tax

Recording happens at the registry of deeds for the county where the land lies, for the 40 dollar fee in 33 M.R.S. Sections 751 and 752, on pages laid out to Maine's all-county registry standards. Unless an exemption applies, a transfer tax declaration goes with the deed: for transfers on or after November 1, 2025 the rate is 2 dollars and 20 cents per 500 dollars of value up to 1,000,000 dollars, charged half to each side. The Androscoggin County example is a 192,000 dollar sale rather than a family gift, so the guide carries the tax arithmetic to each side's 422 dollar and 40 cent share, alongside the 36 M.R.S. Section 4641-C exemptions.

The download holds the blank deed as a fillable PDF, a plain language guide to the ten numbered sections, the certificates and recording, and the completed Androscoggin County example filled in from the grantor block to the second acknowledgment. Searchers reach this instrument as a quit claim deed with spousal joinder or a marital rights release deed; these materials are informational and are not legal advice.