Maine Quitclaim Deed

One individual grantor, one signature line, one acknowledgment certificate: this Maine quitclaim deed is built around the simplest signing pattern the registry sees. The form prepares a quitclaim deed without covenant, the instrument Maine's Short Form Deeds Act also calls a release deed, releasing whatever right, title, and interest a single grantor holds in Maine real property to the named grantee.

A release, not a promise

Maine gives this deed its reach by statute. Under 33 M.R.S. Section 161, a deed of release or quitclaim of the usual form conveys the estate the grantor has and can convey by a deed of any other form, and under Section 771 the word release is sufficient to convey all the grantor's estate. What the deed moves is everything the grantor could move; what it promises is nothing. The form says so expressly: the grantor makes no covenant or warranty of title, and the grantee takes whatever interest the record actually supports, subject to the mortgages, easements, and restrictions already on it.

That express language matters in Maine, because the state draws its quitclaim line at the covenant phrase rather than at the word quitclaim. A Maine deed granting with quitclaim covenant carries a statutory promise to defend against claims arising by, through, or under the grantor. This form carries no covenant phrase at all, which is the without covenant configuration in the Section 775 statutory appendix, and the deed's own text states the release deed effect so the record leaves no doubt about which instrument it is.

One grantor, one certificate

The form recites exactly one grantor, an individual signing personally. A single signature line carries the printed name entry that 33 M.R.S. Section 651-A requires beneath every signature, and a single acknowledgment certificate follows the Maine short form of 4 M.R.S. Section 1917, completed by a notary public or by a Maine attorney under 33 M.R.S. Section 203. Patterns that present this single-grantor release in the record include a parent passing an interest to a child without a sale, a co-owner releasing a fractional share to another co-owner, and a former spouse releasing the interests described in a divorce judgment. Deeds signed by companies, trustees, personal representatives, or agents under a power of attorney follow different execution and recital patterns; this form is not set up as a fiduciary or entity instrument.

Built for Maine's registries

The document is formatted to the Maine Registers of Deeds Association all-county standards: letter size pages, reserved recording space at the top of page one, a clean bottom margin on the last page, and 12 point type, above the association's 10 point Times minimum. The grantee section takes the mailing address that 33 M.R.S. Section 456 directs every Maine deed to contain, and the source of title and encumbrance sections carry the registry book and page references that 33 M.R.S. Section 201-A makes the currency of Maine title work.

Recording happens at the registry of deeds of the county where the land lies, with a statutory recording fee of 40 dollars for ordinary submitters. A Maine deed offered for recording also travels with a real estate transfer tax declaration unless an exemption applies: the tax runs 2 dollars and 20 cents per 500 dollars of value up to 1,000,000 dollars and 6 dollars per 500 dollars above that, split between grantor and grantee, and 36 M.R.S. Section 4641-C exempts common quitclaim situations such as family transfers between spouses, parent and child, or grandparent and grandchild without actual consideration, and transfers between spouses in divorce. The guide walks through the declaration and the exemption claim alongside the deed itself.

What arrives in the download

The package contains the blank quitclaim deed as a fillable PDF, a plain language guide that walks through every numbered section of the form, and a completed example showing the entire document filled in for a realistic Cumberland County fact pattern, from the grantor block through the acknowledgment. Searchers know this instrument as a quit claim deed, a quitclaim without covenant, or a release deed; under any name, the materials are informational and are not legal advice.