Maine Quitclaim Deed (Trustee Grantee)

Every other party to a Maine deed appears in their own right. The grantee here does not: the deed names a trustee, and the released interest lands in that trustee's hands under a trust identified by name and date. The release itself is Maine's quitclaim without covenant, signed by one individual grantor.

A grantee who takes in a capacity

Maine holds trust real estate through the trustee rather than through the trust, and 33 M.R.S. Section 851-A says so from the far side: where a deed names a trust as grantee and no trustee, the conveyance is deemed made to all of the trustees in their capacity as trustees, as though they had been named as grantees instead of the trust. The same section adds that Maine does not treat a trust as a title-holding entity unless the trust's situs law does. Section 2 keeps a deed clear of that territory, taking the trustee or trustees by name, the trust's name, and the date of the trust instrument, and the operative sentence releases to that grantee as trustee and to the successors in trust of that trustee.

Everything released, nothing promised

Under 33 M.R.S. Sections 161 and 771 the word release carries the grantor's whole estate and implies no covenant. Maine reads warranty off the covenant phrase rather than the document's title: warranty covenants and quitclaim covenant each pick up the promises Sections 763 through 766 attach to them. This deed prints neither, and its own text says the grantor gives no covenant of warranty and no quitclaim covenant. The trustee takes the parcel with every recorded mortgage, easement and restriction still fastened to it, listed in Section 9 above a line stating that the listing creates no covenant.

What travels beside the deed

A deed to a trustee neither creates the trust nor shows the trustee's power to act; 33 M.R.S. Section 851 keeps a trust concerning land in signed writing. Where a person dealing with the trustee wants that authority shown without the whole trust document, 18-B M.R.S. Section 1013 supplies the certification of trust, an abstract giving the trust's existence, the date its instrument was executed, the settlor's identity, and how title to trust property is taken. It is prepared and recorded on its own and is not included here. 18-B M.R.S. Section 1012 protects a person who in good faith and for value deals with a trustee without knowing the trustee is exceeding those powers.

The transfer tax line for a trustee transfer

36 M.R.S. Section 4641-C, subsection 15, captioned deeds; trustee, nominee or straw party, covers a deed to a trustee for the grantor as beneficial owner, a deed to a trustee for another person's beneficial ownership where a direct deed would carry no tax, and a deed from a trustee to the beneficial owner. Maine Revenue Services reads the first branch as requiring a transfer for the grantor's own benefit, the shape of an owner deeding into that owner's revocable living trust. Exemption is not relief from paperwork: 36 M.R.S. Section 4641-D still sends a declaration of value to the counter with the reason claimed. Recording costs the statutory 40 dollars, on pages laid out to the Maine Registers of Deeds Association all-county standards.

One grantor, one certificate

The form recites one grantor, an individual signing personally, and one grantee taking as trustee. A single signature line carries the printed name entry that 33 M.R.S. Section 651-A makes a condition of recordability, and one acknowledgment certificate follows in the 4 M.R.S. Section 1917, subsection 1 individual capacity short form, taken under 33 M.R.S. Section 203. Nothing waits for the grantee's pen, because a grantee does not sign a Maine deed, and a trustee grantee is no exception. Patterns bringing a trustee grantee to a Maine registry include an owner funding a revocable living trust that names someone else as trustee, and a successor trustee taking record title to land a prior trustee held. Entity and fiduciary grantors, and deeds carrying more than one grantor, present configurations this form does not recite.

The download holds the blank deed as a fillable PDF, a plain language guide to the form's eleven numbered sections and to recording, and a completed example filled in for a Hancock County owner releasing a Blue Hill lot to the trustee of her revocable living trust. Searchers reach this instrument as a deed into trust or a quit claim deed to a trustee; the materials are informational and are not legal advice.