Lafayette County Warranty Deed (Two Grantors) Form

Two owners transferring Missouri real property together sign one deed, and this fillable warranty deed is arranged for exactly that record: two grantors, two signature lines, two acknowledgment certificates, and a marital status line for each signer. The instrument conveys the whole title to a single grantee and backs it with the statutory grant, bargain and sell formula plus an express promise to warrant and defend against the lawful claims of all persons.

Why Missouri co-owners convey in one deed

Missouri title gives the two-grantor deed its logic. Spouses named together as grantees presumptively hold as tenants by the entirety, each seized of the whole, and while the marriage continues neither spouse alone can sever or convey the estate; Section 442.030 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri provides for the joint deed of husband and wife and binds both spouses to its covenants where title is held by the entirety. Homestead law points the same direction: under Section 513.475, a separate transfer of a qualifying homestead by one spouse is null and void, while the joint conveyance of both spouses stands. Unmarried co-owners reach the same signing pattern by arithmetic rather than presumption, since each tenant in common or joint tenant owns only a share, and a deed passing the entire parcel carries every owner. A married couple selling the home they hold by the entirety, and two co-owners passing a shared parcel to one buyer, present the two-grantor record this deed is built around.

Two signatures, two certificates, two marital status lines

The form recites exactly two record owners conveying to one grantee. Each grantor section collects a name and mailing address and carries its own marital status line, because Section 442.130 makes the married or unmarried statement part of every Missouri conveyance executed by a natural person, and the recording chapter places grantor marital status on the first page; on this form both statements sit on page one, above a legal description block that also stays on the first page. At the signature end, each grantor has a dedicated signature line with a printed name beneath it and a dedicated notary certificate. Missouri law does not require separate certificates, since one certificate under Section 442.210 can name several signers who appear together; the two-certificate layout is a convenience of the form, letting the grantors acknowledge on different days, in different counties, or before different officers. Each certificate tracks the Section 442.210 short form and carries the appearance designation Section 442.145 calls for, stating that the signer appeared before the officer in the same physical location. A deed by a sole owner, or a conveyance running to two or more grantees, presents a different record than the two-grantor, single-grantee pattern this form carries.

Full covenants behind the statutory formula

The conveyance section does its legal work in prose. It carries the exact words grant, bargain and sell, the phrase Missouri's Section 442.420 converts into implied covenants of seizin, freedom from encumbrances arising through the grantors, and further assurances, and it then widens the protection with express covenants running to the whole chain of title, ending in the promise to warrant and defend against all persons except the matters entered in the exceptions section. Both grantors join in every covenant, bound jointly and severally, so the grantee holds the promise of each signer.

Built for the recorder of deeds

The deed is drafted to Missouri's document standards: letter size pages, the three-inch recorder's band across the top of page one, printed names under the signature lines, and the grantee mailing address the recorder checks for under Section 59.330.2. Recording happens in the county where the land lies, and from the moment of filing the record gives notice to all persons. Missouri imposes no statewide deed transfer tax, and recording costs are a modest per-page county charge plus the statutory user fee; where a county collects a certificate of value for the assessor, that certificate travels with the deed as its own county form, prepared separately and not part of this package.

What the download contains

The purchase delivers the two-grantor deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example filled out for a Jackson County transfer by a married couple, and a guide describing each numbered section, the marital status and homestead rules, the notary process, and county recording practice. The materials are informational only and are not legal advice; a Missouri attorney can apply these rules to a specific title.