Pennsylvania Quitclaim Deed

A Pennsylvania quitclaim deed signed by one grantor releases whatever right, title, and interest that single owner holds and passes it to the grantee, without any warranty of title. This version of the form recites exactly one grantor: one party block, one signature line, and one acknowledgment certificate, the configuration a sole owner, a tenant in common holding a fractional share, or a divorced former spouse presents when releasing an interest in Pennsylvania real estate.

The statutory release and quitclaim words

Pennsylvania gives quitclaim language its effect by statute. Under 21 P.S. Section 6, the words release and quit-claim pass all of the grantor's right, title, interest, claim, and demand in the property and bar the grantor and the grantor's heirs and assigns from afterward claiming it. The deed performs the release with those words and states on its face that it carries none of the covenants Pennsylvania attaches to the words grant and convey under 21 P.S. Section 3, and no general or special warranty. The grantee receives exactly what the grantor holds at delivery, subject to whatever liens, easements, and other matters then affect the title.

One grantor, one certificate

The form is built around a single releasing owner. The grantor section recites one individual, the execution section carries one signature line with a printed name and date, and the notary section carries one acknowledgment certificate with the statutory short-form sentence of 57 Pa.C.S. Section 316, so the deed acknowledges cleanly before any notarial officer, in Pennsylvania or elsewhere. Patterns that present this single-grantor configuration run through Pennsylvania title work: a former spouse conveying the one-half share that 23 Pa.C.S. Section 3507 creates when a divorce converts entireties property to a tenancy in common, a sibling releasing an inherited fractional interest to the relative keeping the family property, and an owner releasing a stray record claim so a sale can close. The form recites exactly one grantor; property held by spouses as tenants by the entirety is an indivisible estate that both spouses convey together, a two-signer pattern this form is not set up to carry.

The certificate the recorder looks for

Pennsylvania adds a recording prerequisite most states do not have. Under 16 P.S. Section 9781, the recorder of deeds must refuse a deed unless a certificate of the grantee's precise residence and complete post-office address, signed by the grantee or by someone on the grantee's behalf, is attached and made part of the deed. The form builds that certificate into its final section, and it places the prepared-by and return-to blocks in the first-page top-left area Philadelphia requires and Bucks County requests, with the right side of the first page left clear for the recorder's stamp. A parcel identifier entry serves the counties whose ordinances require the Uniform Parcel Identifier in the instrument.

Transfer tax follows the conveyance, not the label

A quitclaim deed is taxable on the same basis as any other Pennsylvania deed where there is an actual conveyance of real estate (61 Pa. Code Section 91.164). The state rate is 1 percent, local rates are added by municipality and school district, and the recorder collects both at recording. Many of the transfers that arrive on quitclaim deeds, including transfers between spouses, parents and children, and siblings, are excluded transactions under 61 Pa. Code Section 91.193, documented on the REV-183 Statement of Value filed with the deed.

The package delivers the blank quitclaim deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example showing the form filled in for a Lancaster County fact pattern, and a plain-language guide that walks through every section, the notarization rules, and the county recording process. The materials describe Pennsylvania law in general terms and are not legal advice.