Wells County Quitclaim Deed (Corrective) Form

Most deeds describe land. This one also describes a deed. A North Dakota corrective quitclaim deed identifies a specific recorded instrument by document number, states the item that instrument recorded incorrectly, states the corrected item, and releases the same interest to the same grantee a second time, with no covenant or warranty of title behind it.

An instrument North Dakota never wrote a statute for

Searching the Century Code for a correction deed provision comes up empty. Chapter 11-18 governs the recorder, chapter 47-19 governs record title, chapter 47-10 governs conveyances, and none of the three carries a correction instrument section or a re-recording provision for a document already of record. That absence shapes the form: a corrective deed here is an ordinary recordable deed that happens to describe an earlier one. It answers to Section 47-10-01 as a writing subscribed by the party disposing of the estate, reaches the record under Section 47-19-01, and takes its priority from Section 47-19-41.

Two sections do the correcting

Section 3 identifies the earlier instrument by title, date, recording date, document number, and county, all of it read off the recorder's stamp or the county index. Section 4 then takes two entries: the item exactly as the recorded deed states it, and the item as corrected. A misspelled surname, a dropped middle initial, a transposed digit in a lot number. Setting both versions side by side leaves the examiner reading that record years later looking at what changed, rather than inferring it.

One grantor, one grantee, the same interest

The form recites exactly one grantor and exactly one grantee, both being the parties named in the deed under correction, so the new instrument indexes under the same names. It carries one signature block, one acknowledgment certificate, and a marital status line, which answers Section 47-18-05: a married person's homestead is conveyed only through an instrument that husband and wife both execute and acknowledge, a two-signature pattern this configuration does not recite. Section 7 marks the outer edge of the instrument, conveying no interest greater than the earlier deed conveyed and releasing no mortgage or lien. Adding a grantee, dropping one, or enlarging the land described is a conveyancing act rather than a correction, and a release signed by two owners, by an entity, or by an agent follows a different architecture.

The word left out

The operative words are remises, releases, and forever quitclaims, and grant is not among them. The omission does two jobs: Section 47-10-19 reads two limited covenants into that word, and current Section 47-10-15 sends after-acquired title through a quitclaim carrying it. Section 8 excludes both results in terms. Easements, severed minerals, restrictions, mortgages, and tax liens ride through a correction exactly as they rode through the deed being corrected.

When the original grantor cannot sign again

This instrument depends on the original grantor signing a second time. Where that is unavailable, or where someone took an interest in good faith and for value between the two recordings, North Dakota routes the problem elsewhere. Section 32-04-17 lets a court revise a written instrument for fraud or mutual mistake, without prejudice to rights third persons acquired in good faith and for value, and Estate of Vaage, 2016 ND 32, 875 N.W.2d 527, describes the clear and convincing proof that takes. Sections 47-19-11 and 47-19-12 open a recorded affidavit instead for a name variation or a homestead question. Each is prepared and recorded on its own, apart from this package.

What the recorder checks before the stamp

Section 9 prints the certification Section 11-18-02.2 puts on the face of a North Dakota deed, taking either the consideration paid or the exempting subdivision of subsection 6, where subdivision h reaches property transferred by quitclaim deed. Section 6 prints the drafter statement of Section 47-19-03.1, whose closing phrase covers a metes and bounds description copied from the instrument being corrected. The county auditor certifies transfer and taxes under Section 11-18-02 first, the statutory fee opens at twenty dollars through six pages, and the state levies no deed or transfer tax. Searches written as quit claim deed correction, or as correction deed, land on this configuration.

The download holds three files: the blank corrective quitclaim deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example filled in for a Traill County name correction, and a guide covering every numbered section, the ownership forms open to grantees, and the recording path. These materials describe North Dakota law in general terms and are not legal advice.