North Dakota Quitclaim Deed (Individual Grantor by Attorney-in-Fact)

North Dakota Century Code Section 47-19-29 supplies an acknowledgment certificate for exactly one situation: an instrument signed by an attorney in fact. This quitclaim deed is built around that certificate. One individual record owner stands as grantor, that owner's agent under a power of attorney writes the signature in the owner's name, and the certificate recites that the agent subscribed the owner's name as principal and the agent's own name as attorney in fact.

A signature written in someone else's name

Section 47-10-01 gives the arrangement its footing: an estate in real property passes by operation of law or by an instrument in writing subscribed by the party disposing of it, or by that party's lawfully authorized agent. The conveyance still belongs to the owner; the agent supplies the subscription. Section 9 puts that on the page, stating that the attorney in fact signs in the grantor's name, not individually, and takes nothing under the deed. Section 11 holds one signature block, followed by one certificate, because one person signs.

Where the authority lives

Chapter 30.1-30, the Uniform Durable Power of Attorney Act, is North Dakota's financial power of attorney law, and the power itself travels alongside this deed rather than inside it. Section 30.1-30-01 makes a power durable only through express words carrying the authority past the principal's later disability or incapacity, and Section 30.1-30-02 gives acts done under a durable power during such a period the same effect as acts done for a principal under no disability. Recording the power is permitted rather than required: Section 47-19-01 opens the record to any instrument affecting title to or possession of real property, and Section 47-19-03 conditions recording on acknowledgment or statutory proof. Section 2 takes the date of the power and its recording data where it has been recorded. On the separate question of continuance, Section 30.1-30-05 describes an affidavit of the attorney in fact, prepared and recorded on its own and not part of this package.

What the release reaches

Remises, releases, and forever quitclaims are the words that convey here, and the word grant is left out of them on purpose. Two consequences follow: the pair of narrow covenants Section 47-10-19 attaches to grant never arises, and the after-acquired-title rule of current Section 47-10-15 never reaches this instrument. The form states both exclusions and makes no covenant or warranty of title. The grantee ends up with the interest the owner held at delivery, encumbered by whatever already encumbered it.

One question agency cannot answer

A homestead belonging to a married person cannot be conveyed under Section 47-18-05, whatever its value, unless husband and wife both execute and acknowledge the instrument. An agent's authority under one spouse's power of attorney produces that spouse's execution and not the other spouse's. The lone signature this form recites therefore describes an unmarried owner, or an owner conveying land that is not the homestead of a marriage, and Section 1 asks for marital status. Section 47-19-33 adds a limit of its own, disqualifying an individual from taking an acknowledgment on an instrument to which that individual, that individual's partnership, or that individual's spouse is a party. Owners living out of state, owners who arranged years earlier for a relative to handle property matters, and owners in extended care stand behind deeds in this shape, which searches often reach as a quit claim deed signed under a power of attorney.

What the recorder finds on the face

Section 10 answers Section 11-18-02.2, which keeps a deed off the record unless its face certifies the consideration paid or names the subsection 6 exemption relied on; subdivision h is the letter for property passing by quitclaim deed, and the grantee or presenting agent signs and dates that block without a notarial officer. Section 8 answers Section 47-19-03.1 with the drafter statement for a metes and bounds description, and Section 4 collects the grantee addresses Sections 47-10-07 and 47-19-05 require. Ahead of the recorder stands the county auditor, whose certificate Section 11-18-02 requires; at the window, Section 11-18-05 sets twenty dollars for a deed of six pages or fewer, and no deed or transfer tax exists here.

Buying the package brings three files: a fillable blank deed, a Richland County example filled from the grantor entry through the statutory certificate, and a guide treating each numbered section, the agency entries, and the ways a grantee may take title. All of it describes North Dakota law in general terms, and none of it is legal advice.