Santa Fe County Quitclaim Deed (Trustee Grantee) Form

The grantee entry on this New Mexico quitclaim deed does not stop at a name. It carries a capacity, a trust, and a date: the trustee taking title, the trust that trustee serves, and the day the trust instrument was executed. Built on the statutory quitclaim form at NMSA 1978, Section 47-1-44, the deed moves one grantor's interest in New Mexico real estate to a named trustee, to be held under the terms of that trust.

The record holds a trustee, not a trust

Legal title to New Mexico real estate held in trust sits with the trustee, and the grantee section is arranged to show that: the acting trustee or co-trustees, the name of the trust, the execution date of the trust instrument, then the grantee mailing address Section 47-1-44 calls for. The conveyance section states that the grantee takes title in the capacity of trustee and runs the grant to that trustee's successors in trust. Authority over the property comes from the trust instrument and from the Uniform Trust Code, where Section 46A-8-815 gives a trustee, except as the trust provides otherwise, all powers over trust property that an unmarried competent owner has over individually owned property.

Why the trust instrument stays private

New Mexico does not ask a trustee to put a trust instrument in the public records to take title. Section 46A-10-1013 supplies a certification of trust instead: a short document stating that the trust exists and when it was executed, who the settlor is, who the acting trustee is, what powers that trustee holds, whether the trust is revocable, and how many co-trustees must sign. A recipient using it to affect title to real property may require a trustee to acknowledge it so that it can be recorded. A certification of trust is prepared and recorded separately and does not come with this package; the guide describes what the statute puts in one.

What the trustee receives, and what rides along

New Mexico implies covenants of title from two defined phrases and no others: Section 47-1-37 attaches the full set to a deed granting with warranty covenants, and Section 47-1-38 the limited set to one granting with special warranty covenants. This deed uses neither and prints that fact in its conveyance section, so the trustee receives the grantor's interest as of delivery, with every mortgage, easement, and restriction of record still attached. That is the ordinary posture for a transfer into trust, whose object is changing who holds title, not buying assurances.

One grantor, one certificate, one marital status line

The form recites a single grantor, a marital status line, one signature line, and one acknowledgment certificate worded to the New Mexico short form at Section 14-14A-15. Marital status sits on the face of the deed because Section 40-3-13(A) voids a one spouse transfer of community real property, so the single signature layout recites an unmarried grantor, or a married grantor conveying separate property held in that grantor's sole name. An owner funding a revocable living trust with a parcel, a settlor finishing a funding step left undone when the trust was signed, and an owner releasing an interest to the trustee already holding the rest of a family tract present the trustee grantee pattern this deed recites. Two owners conveying together, and a grantee taking title individually, present configurations this form does not recite.

Recording, and the exemption that names trustees

The signed original goes to the clerk of the county holding the land, where twenty five dollars covers a document carrying ten or fewer index entries and nothing further is collected, New Mexico having neither a transfer tax nor documentary stamps. Notarization is the gate, since only an acknowledged instrument reaches the record. Residential property adds a confidential declaration to the county assessor, due within thirty days, and the exemption list reaches this instrument by name at Section 7-38-12.1(D)(15), an instrument from a person to a trustee with only nominal actual consideration.

What the package includes

The package delivers this trustee grantee configuration as a fillable PDF, a completed example filled in for a Valencia County owner deeding a Los Lunas lot to herself as trustee of her revocable trust, and a plain-language guide covering each numbered section, the Uniform Trust Code provisions behind the grantee entries, and recording. Searches reach it as a quit claim deed or quick claim deed into a trust; the statutes spell it quitclaim. This material is informational and is not legal advice.