Steele County Warranty Deed (Individual Grantor) Form

This North Dakota warranty deed is built for a single individual grantor: one owner conveying real property with the full set of express title covenants, through one grantor block, one signature line, and one acknowledgment certificate. The form recites exactly one grantor acting personally, so it presents the simplest signing architecture a North Dakota deed can carry, and it pairs the conveyance with the certifications the state's recording statutes place on the face of the deed itself.

A warranty that reaches the whole chain of title

North Dakota prescribes no single mandatory warranty deed form, so the covenants appear expressly in the instrument. This deed states the usual covenants North Dakota law defines in N.D.C.C. 47-10-03 and 47-10-04: seizin, good right to convey, freedom from encumbrances except the matters stated, quiet enjoyment, further assurance, and a general warranty of title against the lawful claims of all persons. The operative word grants also engages the two implied covenants of section 47-10-19 and the after-acquired title rule of section 47-10-15, and the deed's exceptions section defines where the warranty stops, listing recorded easements, reservations, and current taxes and assessments the conveyance is subject to. A North Dakota general warranty deed and a full covenant deed are the common search names for this same instrument.

One grantor, one signature, one certificate

The form carries a single grantor entry with the owner's name and status, one signature and date line, and one acknowledgment certificate following the short form of N.D.C.C. 44-06.1-19(1). A sole owner selling a house, an heir passing a fractional interest that heir owns alone, and a co-owner conveying only that co-owner's undivided share present the one-grantor pattern this deed recites. The form is not set up as a two-grantor instrument, and it carries no spousal joinder signature: North Dakota's homestead statute, N.D.C.C. 47-18-05, makes a married person's homestead conveyance effective only when both spouses execute and acknowledge the instrument, so the single-signature configuration matches an unmarried grantor or a married grantor conveying property that is not the couple's homestead.

The certifications North Dakota recorders look for

Two statutory statements ride on the face of this deed. The first is the statement of full consideration or exemption under N.D.C.C. 11-18-02.2: the grantee or the grantee's authorized agent certifies the full consideration paid, or certifies an exemption under a named subdivision of the statute, and signs and dates the certification; the county recorder may not record a deed without it. The second is the legal description drafter statement of N.D.C.C. 47-19-03.1, naming who prepared a metes and bounds description or stating that the description came from a previously recorded instrument. The form also provides labeled blanks for the grantee's post-office address and city street address, which sections 47-10-07 and 47-19-05 make deed content and a recording prerequisite.

From the auditor's stamp to the record

A North Dakota deed passes through the county auditor before the recorder: section 11-18-02 directs the recorder to refuse a deed until the auditor certifies the transfer and the tax status. The first page of this form reserves the statutory three inches at the top for recording information, keeps one inch margins, and stays within the legal size maximum, so it moves through the format rules of section 11-18-05 without penalty fees. Recording costs twenty dollars for an instrument of one to six pages, and North Dakota imposes no deed tax or transfer tax. Once recorded, the deed gives constructive notice and takes priority over unrecorded conveyances under section 47-19-41.

The download delivers this warranty deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example showing a Cass County fact pattern entry by entry, and a guide that walks through every section, the covenants, and the recording steps. The materials describe North Dakota law in general terms and are not legal advice.