Somerset County Quitclaim Deed (Individual Grantor by Attorney-in-Fact) Form

The grantor named on this deed never picks up a pen. This New Jersey quitclaim deed is drawn for a record owner whose deed is signed by an attorney-in-fact under a power of attorney: the owner is the grantor, one authorized individual signs in the owner's name, and the certificate states that the signature carried proper authority as the act of the owner. What it releases, it releases with no warranty.

Where the Signature Gets Its Authority

New Jersey's Statute of Frauds provision, N.J.S.A. 25:1-11, makes a transfer effective where the writing is signed by or on behalf of the transferor. The Revised Durable Power of Attorney Act at N.J.S.A. 46:2B-8.1 and following governs the on-behalf-of half. N.J.S.A. 46:2B-8.9 fixes the formality of the power itself: in writing, duly signed, and acknowledged in the manner set forth in R.S. 46:14-2.1, the provision deeds answer to. Durability through the principal's later incapacity depends on express language under N.J.S.A. 46:2B-8.2. Section 3 collects the date of the power, its recording data, and the provision relied on.

The Gift Limit That Reaches Family Transfers

One provision bears hard on a family transfer for a nominal sum. Under N.J.S.A. 46:2B-8.13a, a power of attorney is not construed to authorize the attorney-in-fact to gratuitously transfer property of the principal to the agent or to others except to the extent that the power expressly and specifically so authorizes, and authority to perform generally all acts the principal could perform is not an express authorization to make gifts. The agent owes the accounting duties of N.J.S.A. 46:2B-8.13 besides.

Still in Force on the Day of Signing

N.J.S.A. 46:2B-8.5 provides that a principal's death does not terminate the agency as to a person who, without actual knowledge of the death, acts in good faith under the power. N.J.S.A. 46:2B-8.6 lets a third party rely on a durable power until actual notice arrives, and call for an affidavit of the attorney-in-fact denying actual knowledge of revocation, termination, or the principal's death, disability, or incapacity. That affidavit is conclusive proof of nonrevocation, recordable once authenticated for record, and drawn separately from this package.

Released Without a Promise of Title

Words of release under N.J.S.A. 46:5-1 carry the grantor's interest, and N.J.S.A. 46:5-3 fixes their reach: with no reservation made, what arrives is the estate a deed of bargain and sale from this grantor could have carried, and no covenant that the grantor held it. The covenant phrases of N.J.S.A. 46:4-3 through 46:4-10 are nowhere in the instrument, whose capitalized statements print their absence and the agent's non-individual capacity.

How This Form Is Configured

One grantor block for the record owner; one block for the individual signing, with the power of attorney identified by date, recording reference, and provision relied on; one grantee block with a mailing address and words of vesting; a prior deed reference; one signature block; one certificate whose by-line takes the signer's name with the attorney-in-fact capacity. It is not set up as a deed from two record owners, from an entity, to a grantee taking in a fiduciary capacity, or by a personal representative acting under letters, and it carries neither covenants nor a joinder block for a spouse off title. Patterns presenting this configuration include an owner who has moved out of state and whose agent signs at settlement, and an owner in long term care whose agent releases an undivided share to the co-owner keeping the property.

What the County Collects

Consideration is stated as N.J.S.A. 46:15-6 directs, whose subsection a. lets the Affidavit of Consideration be made by a party named in the deed or that party's legal representative. Where total consideration tops $1,000,000 on a qualifying class, P.L.2025, c.69 puts the Graduated Percent Fee of N.J.S.A. 46:15-7.2 on the grantor. The Division of Taxation seller residency forms go further than Title 46 does: each carries a certification that a power of attorney to represent the seller has been previously recorded or is being recorded simultaneously with the deed.

Priority runs to the party who records first without notice, under N.J.S.A. 46:26A-12. Inside the download: the fillable deed, a completed example set in Burlington County, where an agent releases an owner's undivided half to the co-owner buying it, and a plain-language guide to the sections, the agency statutes, the certificate, and the recording filings. The power of attorney is itself recordable under N.J.S.A. 46:26A-2(b), prepared and recorded on its own. The materials are informational and are not legal advice.