Somerset County Quitclaim Deed (Trustee Grantee) Form

Every other line of a deed names a person. The grantee line on this one names an office. This New Jersey quitclaim deed conveys to a grantee who takes as trustee, so the words after the grantee's name carry a capacity rather than a beneficial interest. One grantor signs, and the release carries no covenant of title.

A Grantee That Is a Capacity

Title conveyed to a trustee is legal title held for someone else. The trustee's name goes into the county index and the trustee signs the next deed out, while the beneficial interests answer to the trust instrument under the New Jersey Trust Code, N.J.S.A. 3B:31-1 and following. New Jersey treats even the styling as trust business: N.J.S.A. 3B:31-81(a)(7) lists the name in which title to trust property may be taken among the items a certification of trust states. So the grantee block copies its wording from the trust instrument, and the trust gets a numbered section of its own: trust name, date of the trust instrument, date of any amendment or restatement.

Two Trustees, One Trusteeship

Co-trustees are where a generic grantee block goes wrong. New Jersey's default rules for two grantees who take beneficially describe nothing like two people serving a single trust: N.J.S.A. 46:3-17 leaves co-owners holding as tenants in common where no survivorship words appear, N.J.S.A. 46:3-17.2 puts grantees designated as married to each other into a tenancy by the entirety, and N.J.S.A. 46:3-17.5 hands the survivor the whole estate. A trusteeship divides along none of those lines. So the deed states that two or more named grantees take as co-trustees of the one trust, leaving to the trust instrument the question N.J.S.A. 3B:31-81(a)(6) frames: whether all or fewer than all of them must act. A companion clause carries the conveyance to each successor trustee serving from time to time, so a later change of trusteeship sends nobody back to this deed.

How Far the Release Reaches

The conveyance is statutory work. N.J.S.A. 46:5-1 counts remise, release and forever quitclaim among the phrases that carry an interest, construing a deed that uses them as though the grantor had granted and conveyed. N.J.S.A. 46:5-3 sets the ceiling: absent a reservation, the trustee ends up with the estate a bargain and sale deed from the same grantor would have produced, and with no promise that the grantor held it. Nothing in this deed supplies what the abbreviated covenant phrases of N.J.S.A. 46:4-3 through 46:4-10 would carry, from seisin to general warranty, and two capitalized statements on the face of the instrument say as much.

How This Form Is Configured

The form carries a single grantor block, a grantee block sized for one trustee or for several co-trustees, a trust identification section, a grantee mailing address, and one acknowledgment certificate, the grantor being the only signer. It is not set up as a deed from two record owners, a deed whose grantor signs in a representative capacity, a deed with a joinder block for a non-owner spouse or civil union partner, or a deed carrying covenants. Patterns that present this configuration include a parcel inherited from a parent moving into a family trust already established, an undivided share released to the trustee who holds the balance of the same land, and ground placed with the trustee of an irrevocable trust drawn for a relative.

What Travels to the Recording Office

Recordability turns on N.J.S.A. 46:26A-3: a printed name under the signature, the preparer's name, the lot and block or a statement that none is assigned, consideration handled as N.J.S.A. 46:15-6 directs, and a grantee mailing address, which on a trust conveyance is ordinarily the trustee's and not the property's. Indexing runs off a cover sheet or an electronic synopsis. A transfer for a nominal sum commonly claims the N.J.S.A. 46:15-10 exemption for consideration under one hundred dollars, stated on the Affidavit of Consideration, and no county may accept the deed without the applicable GIT/REP seller form. Authority to take title is shown outside the deed, through a certification of trust under N.J.S.A. 3B:31-81 or through the trust documents N.J.S.A. 46:26A-4(a) allows to be recorded with a fiduciary affidavit; each is prepared separately and not included in this package.

The download holds the deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example worked through a Somerset County conveyance to two co-trustees, and a plain-language guide covering each numbered section, the notarial rules, and the fees and affidavits collected at recording. The materials are informational and are not legal advice.