Belknap County Quitclaim Deed (Reserving Life Estate) Form

A New Hampshire deed that reserves something meets a statute that fills the silence: under RSA 477:24 a deed or reservation of real estate is construed to convey or reserve an interest in fee simple unless a different intention clearly appears in the deed. This fillable New Hampshire quitclaim deed is drawn under RSA 477:28 for the conveyance where that sentence carries the most weight: one individual grantor conveys the remainder interest and reserves a life estate for the term of that grantor's own life.

Two Estates Out of One Instrument

The grantor keeps a present possessory life estate; the grantee takes a vested remainder in fee simple when the deed is delivered. Section 9 prints the sequence: the life estate ends at the grantor's death and the remainder becomes possessory then, without a later instrument. RSA 477:3-b, which voids a legal possibility of reverter, right of re-entry, or executory interest created after December 31, 2008 outside public and charitable ownership, names none of the interests this deed creates. And the reservation sits inside the statutory form rather than beside it: the descriptive blank RSA 477:28 prints calls for the land or interest conveyed together with incumbrances, exceptions, and reservations, if any.

The Words That Keep a Reservation From Becoming a Fee

RSA 477:24 relieves the drafter of technical words of inheritance, so no reference to heirs or assigns is needed to reserve an estate, and in the same breath it reads an unqualified reservation as a reservation in fee. A reserved life estate depends on the deed saying so clearly, and this form says it twice: Section 8 names the measuring life as the grantor named in Section 1, and the operative section states that the reservation runs for the term of that grantor's natural life only and is not a reservation in fee simple. The covenants in that same section are the RSA 477:28 promises, measured by the grantor's own years in title: no encumbrances beyond those Section 7 excepts, and a defense against claims traced by, through, or under the grantor, and against none other.

One Signature, One Certificate, and a Grantee Who Signs Nothing

The form recites exactly one grantor, an individual signing personally, with a marital status entry, one signature line carrying the printed name entry RSA 478:4-a, I(c) makes an intake item, and one acknowledgment certificate in the RSA 456-B:8 short form for an individual capacity. The grantee entry takes one or more remainder holders and, where there are two or more, the words stating the form of ownership among them, since RSA 477:18 reads such a conveyance as a tenancy in common absent clear survivorship words. Patterns that present this configuration in the record include a parent conveying the remainder in a home while continuing to live in it, an owner conveying the remainder in a camp or woodlot while keeping its use for life, and a family transfer where possession does not change during the owner's lifetime. A reservation measured by another person's life, a reservation to a stranger to the deed, and a conveyance of the whole fee with nothing reserved each recite something this form does not.

Registry Intake and the Tax on a Remainder Interest

Three items answer RSA 478:4-a, I at the counter: the grantee's latest mailing address, the municipality named in the description's opening sentence, and the printed name under the signature. The transfer tax reaches this deed squarely: RSA 78-B:1, I(a) taxes the transfer of real estate and any interest therein and presumes each one taxable, which places a remainder interest in the base at seventy-five cents per $100 against each side. A gift lands elsewhere: RSA 78-B:2, IX excepts noncontractual transfers, RSA 78-B:1-a, III defines those as transfers satisfying the three elements of a gift, and Rev 804.01 keeps homestead rights out of that classification. Section 10 holds the statement RSA 78-B:6 wants before any recording is completed.

The download delivers the deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example filled in for a Merrimack County gift where a Boscawen owner conveys the remainder in her home to two children and keeps a life estate, and a plain language guide to the eleven sections, the signing formalities, and the recording steps. Searchers type this one as a life estate deed or a deed reserving a life estate, and quit claim turns up as two words although the statute prints one. The package describes New Hampshire law in general terms and gives no legal advice.