Cortland County Quitclaim Deed (Corrective) Form

Nothing is erased from a county's land records. When a recorded New York deed carries a transposed lot number or a misspelled name, the answer is a second instrument that sits after the first in the chain and states what the first one got wrong. This form prepares that second instrument, a corrective quitclaim deed, also searched as a correction deed, signed by the one individual grantor who made the earlier conveyance.

Three sections about a deed already on file

What distinguishes this instrument from an ordinary release is how much of it looks backward. Section 3 identifies the earlier deed by its date, the date it reached the record, the office that recorded it, and the liber and page, instrument number, or ACRIS reference that office assigned. Section 4 states what the earlier deed says. Section 5 states the terms as corrected, and closes on the point an examiner reads next: that the rest of the earlier deed stands unchanged. The pair of recorded instruments then shows both the mistake and its repair.

Where correcting stops and conveying starts

Errors this instrument reaches leave the parties and the parcel alone and change only how the earlier deed described them: a lot or block number reversed, a name spelled two ways, a tax map designation belonging to the neighboring parcel, a filed map reference left out, a street address that does not match the land. Adding an owner, dropping one, switching the co-ownership form the grantees take, or picking up land the first deed never described is a fresh conveyance wearing a correction label, and Tax Law Section 1405(b)(3) draws that line in its own words: it exempts conveyances which, without additional consideration, confirm, correct, modify or supplement a prior conveyance. Section 1404 still presumes every conveyance taxable and puts the burden of proving otherwise on the person liable, so the exemption is claimed on a filed return rather than assumed on the deed.

The corrective configuration

The form recites exactly one grantor, an individual signing personally, who is the grantor named in the prior deed; one grantee, the same person who took under it; and one prior recorded deed. A single signature block follows, then one certificate in the substance of the Real Property Law Section 309-a uniform acknowledgment. Because the correction rests on that signature, the instrument reaches only the case where the original grantor is available to sign again; a court reformation action answers the case where that person has died or cannot be found, and it is brought separately and is not part of this package. A prior deed executed by two record owners, by spouses together, by a company, a partner, a fiduciary, or an agent under a power of attorney carries capacity and signature sections this form does not.

A release, corrected, with nothing promised

Correcting is the whole of what this deed says about the title. Its words of conveyance are Section 258's remise, release and quitclaim, and Real Property Law Section 251 withholds any implied covenant from a New York deed, so the corrected instrument vouches for nothing and the liens and easements already on the parcel ride through untouched. Printed beside it is the Lien Law Section 13 trust fund covenant, which holds a conveyance recorded mid improvement ahead of mechanics liens filed afterward.

Correction deeds, named at the counter

New York's recording package names this instrument outright. The Department of Taxation and Finance instructions for the RP-5217 transfer report state that an original form must accompany all deeds and correction deeds upon filing with the recording officer, with its fee, on legal size paper. The TP-584 transfer tax return goes in as well, due whether or not tax is payable, and its Part 3 carries the matching entry as item c. The deed goes to the clerk in the county where the land lies, or through ACRIS in four boroughs, and Section 291 supplies the reason for going promptly: a correction that never reaches the record leaves the erroneous deed standing there alone.

The download holds the blank corrective quit claim deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example prepared for a Niagara County correction of a transposed lot number, and a plain language guide covering all twelve sections, the notarization, and the two returns. The materials are informational and are not legal advice. Whether an error is corrected by a new instrument or belongs before a court is a question for a New York attorney.