Wells County Quitclaim Deed (Married Grantor with Non-Owner Spouse Joinder) Form

One of the two signatures on this North Dakota quitclaim deed conveys nothing, and the deed is not finished without it. The form is configured for a single married record owner as grantor, with that owner's spouse joining in the same instrument: the grantor line names one owner, a joinder section names the spouse, and the spouse signs and acknowledges the deed without becoming a grantor of record title.

A signature that conveys nothing

North Dakota Century Code Section 47-18-05 withholds from either spouse acting alone the power to convey a married person's homestead, whatever the homestead is worth; the instrument has to be executed and acknowledged by husband and wife together. The statute keys that requirement to the marriage rather than to the deed's grantor line, so a house standing in one spouse's name answers to it as fully as one held in both names. Section 10 of this form recites the marriage, records that both parties execute and acknowledge the deed for purposes of Section 47-18-05, and states what that signature does not do: it adds no separately held record interest, places the spouse nowhere in the chain of record title, and makes no warranty of title.

One instrument, two executions

The statute speaks of the instrument by which the homestead is conveyed being executed and acknowledged by both spouses, and this form takes that wording at face value. Both signature blocks sit in Section 12 of the one deed that goes to the recorder, and each is followed by its own acknowledgment certificate. The separate certificates are a design choice rather than a demand of North Dakota law, which accepts one certificate substantially in the form of Section 47-19-27 naming both signers; keeping them apart lets the owner and the joining spouse appear on different days or before different officers while their executions stay within the same recorded instrument. Section 44-06.1-13.1 opens remote appearance through communication technology on that statute's terms.

What the grantor releases, and what rides along

The operative words are remises, releases, and forever quitclaims, and the record owner alone speaks them. The deed states that grant is not among its words of conveyance, which keeps the two limited covenants Section 47-10-19 reads into that word out of the instrument and keeps the deed clear of the after-acquired-title rule current Section 47-10-15 attaches to a quitclaim carrying grant. The grantee receives the interest the owner holds at delivery, subject to easements, restrictions, mineral severances, liens, and the rest of the record. A quit claim deed, in the spelling searches often use, reaches the interest and never the encumbrances on it.

Title in one name, a homestead in two

Two record patterns bring this architecture forward. Property bought by one spouse before the marriage stays in that spouse's name on the record, and property that reached one spouse by inheritance or by gift during the marriage arrives titled the same way. In both, once the couple occupies the land, the homestead described in Section 47-18-01 is a live question for a title examiner reading the deed years later. The form recites exactly one grantor of record and exactly one joining spouse: co-owners who each release an interest, spouses who hold title together and convey as a pair, and any transfer needing a third signature follow a different architecture, and a single unmarried owner's release carries no joinder section at all.

What the recorder reads on the face

Section 11 prints the certification of Section 11-18-02.2 with subdivision h of subsection 6 designated, the exemption covering a transfer of ownership for which a quitclaim deed is given; the grantee or the presenting agent signs and dates that entry, and no notarial officer touches it. Section 8 carries the drafter statement of Section 47-19-03.1 for a description written in metes and bounds. The county auditor certifies transfer and taxes under Section 11-18-02 before the recorder takes the deed at all, the statewide fee runs twenty dollars through six pages, and North Dakota levies no transfer tax or deed tax.

The package holds three pieces: the blank deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example worked through a Ward County fact pattern, and a guide covering each numbered section, the joinder rule, and the ownership forms open to grantees. An affidavit of marital status or homestead character under Section 47-19-11 is prepared and recorded separately and is not part of this package. These materials describe North Dakota law in general terms and are not legal advice.