Lea County Warranty Deed (Individual Grantor) Form

A New Mexico warranty deed built for one individual grantor carries a single signature line and a single acknowledgment certificate, the simplest execution pattern New Mexico conveyancing allows. This fillable form prepares that deed: one grantor conveying New Mexico real estate with full warranty covenants, in the pattern of the statutory warranty deed form at NMSA 1978, Section 47-1-44.

One grantor, one signature, one certificate

The form recites a single grantor in its first section, together with a marital status line, then collects the grantee, the county and formal legal description, the street address, the source of title, and the exceptions the conveyance is subject to. One signature block and one notarial certificate complete it. An unmarried owner conveying solely owned real estate, and a married owner conveying separate property that New Mexico law lets one spouse convey alone, present the single grantor pattern this deed recites. New Mexico is a community property state, and a conveyance of community real property carries the signatures of both spouses under NMSA 1978, Section 40-3-13; this form is not set up as a two-spouse deed, and its single signature block matches the sole ownership patterns above. On the receiving side, the grantee section accepts one or more grantees with any co-ownership designation New Mexico recognizes, from tenancy in common to an express joint tenancy with right of survivorship, and the guide describes each form with its statutory citation.

Warranty covenants that reach the whole chain of title

New Mexico compresses its strongest deed into two words. Under NMSA 1978, Section 47-1-37, the phrase warranty covenants carries the full statutory covenants: that the grantor is lawfully seized in fee simple, that the property is free from encumbrances, that the grantor has good right to sell and convey, and that the grantor and the grantor's successors will warrant and defend the title against the lawful claims and demands of all persons. That defense runs to defects arising anywhere in the chain of title, not merely during the grantor's own ownership, which is what separates a general warranty deed from New Mexico's special warranty and quitclaim forms. The deed's exceptions section recites the matters the conveyance is subject to, such as recorded easements, subdivision restrictions, and current year taxes, and the covenants are limited accordingly.

A 1947 statutory form, modernized

The operative language follows the statutory form enacted in 1947: for consideration paid, the grantor grants the described real estate to the grantee, whose address the granting clause states, with warranty covenants. The statutory pattern places the grantee's mailing address inside the granting clause, and the county assessor uses the recorded address to update the ownership rolls. The deed states no sale price. New Mexico imposes no deed transfer tax and keeps consideration off the public record; for most residential transfers the price is reported instead on a confidential transfer declaration affidavit filed with the county assessor within thirty days of recording, a separate filing the guide walks through, prepared apart from this deed and not included in this package.

Recording with the county clerk

Acknowledgment before a notarial officer is the statutory gate to recording in New Mexico, and the certificate printed on the form follows the current short form under the state's Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts. The completed deed is recorded with the county clerk of the county where the property is located for a flat statutory fee of twenty-five dollars per document, uniform in every county, with the top of the first page left blank for the clerk's recording label. From recording, the deed gives constructive notice of its contents, and New Mexico's notice-based recording act protects purchasers, mortgagees, and judgment lien creditors without knowledge against instruments left unrecorded.

The package delivers the New Mexico warranty deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example showing the entire document filled in for a Bernalillo County fact pattern, and a plain language guide that walks through every section of the form, the signing and notarization requirements, and the recording steps. The materials describe New Mexico law in general terms and are informational; they are not legal advice.