Essex County Quitclaim Deed (Married Couple as Grantors) Form

New Jersey treats a married couple's title as something neither spouse can quietly take apart. When spouses hold real estate as tenants by the entirety, N.J.S.A. 46:3-17.4 bars either one from severing or alienating the other's interest during the marriage without the written consent of both. This form prepares the New Jersey quitclaim deed shaped around that rule: two grantors who are married to each other release their interest in the property together, in one instrument that carries both signatures, both consents, and no warranty of title.

One Estate, Two Signatures

The configuration follows the estate. Under N.J.S.A. 46:3-17.2, spouses who take title under a written instrument designating them as married to each other hold as tenants by the entirety, and N.J.S.A. 46:3-17.5 deems the survivor to have owned the whole from the start. Neither spouse holds a separable half that can pass to a grantee alone. The deed accordingly recites two grantors who state that they are married to each other, carries a signature line and an acknowledgment certificate for each spouse, and sets out on its face each grantor's written consent to the conveyance. The same section releases each spouse's joint right of possession in a jointly occupied principal matrimonial residence under N.J.S.A. 3B:28-3, so the grantee does not take title subject to a statutory possessory right left standing in either spouse. Civil union partners hold the same property rights under N.J.S.A. 37:1-31 and 37:1-32.

Everything Released, Nothing Promised

The operative words are statutory. N.J.S.A. 46:5-1 construes a deed in which the grantors remise, release and forever quitclaim unto the grantee as a grant and conveyance of their interest, and N.J.S.A. 46:5-3 measures the result: a quitclaim without a reservation carries to the grantee all the estate the grantors could lawfully pass by deed of bargain and sale. What the instrument leaves out is any promise about that estate. The short statutory covenants of N.J.S.A. 46:4-3 through 46:4-10, seisin, right to convey, freedom from encumbrances, warranty, appear nowhere in it, and the deed says so plainly, so the grantee takes the couple's interest exactly as the record leaves it, mortgages, easements, and other recorded matters included.

Where Both Spouses Sign Away Together

The form recites exactly two grantors, married to each other, and one grantee entry; a sole grantor, unmarried co-owners, and a trustee grantee belong to configurations outside this form's recitals. Spouses conveying the family property to a grown child, a couple moving record title into one spouse's sole name, and spouses joining to release the couple's recorded interest and quiet an old title question present the married-couple pattern this deed carries. New Jersey's transfer tax treats these family conveyances gently: N.J.S.A. 46:15-10 exempts from the Realty Transfer Fee a deed for a consideration of less than $100 and a deed between husband and wife or between parent and child, with the claimed exemption stated on the Affidavit of Consideration, Form RTF-1, recorded alongside the deed. One consequence of the conveyance itself deserves notice: once the couple's entireties property passes to the grantee, the survivorship that ran between the spouses under N.J.S.A. 46:3-17.5 no longer operates on it.

From Signatures to the County Record

Each spouse acknowledges the deed before a notary public, a New Jersey attorney, or another officer N.J.S.A. 46:14-6.1 authorizes, and New Jersey permits acknowledgment by a remotely located individual through communication technology. To be recordable, the deed carries the names printed beneath both signatures, the preparer's name, the grantee's mailing address, and the lot and block or a statement that none is assigned, all under N.J.S.A. 46:26A-3, and it travels to the county with the cover sheet or electronic synopsis and the required GIT/REP seller form. Prompt recording protects the grantee: under N.J.S.A. 46:26A-12, a later purchaser for value without notice who records first defeats an unrecorded deed.

The download delivers the deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example worked through a realistic Bergen County family transfer, and a plain-language guide covering every numbered section, both spouses' signing and acknowledgment steps, and the fee, tax, and cover sheet items that accompany a New Jersey deed at recording. The materials are informational and are not legal advice.