Pennsylvania Quitclaim Deed

Pennsylvania decides what a deed promises by reading two short phrases. The Act of April 1, 1909, carried at 21 P.S. Sections 1 through 10, gives one fixed meaning to the words grant and convey and another to the words release and quit claim, and a Pennsylvania quitclaim deed is the instrument that prints the second and withholds the first. This is the base form of that instrument: one or two natural persons releasing whatever interest they hold to one or two grantees, with no warranty riding along.

The phrase this deed prints, and the four it leaves out

Under 21 P.S. Section 6, a deed using the words release and quit claim is read as though the grantor had remised, released, and forever quit-claimed to the grantee and the grantee's heirs and assigns all right, title, interest, property, claim, and demand whatsoever, both in law and in equity, barring any later claim by the grantor or the grantor's heirs. Section 10 is written in those words. Four phrases from the same Act never appear: grant and convey, which passes a fee simple under Section 1 and carries the Section 3 covenants of seizin, encumbrance, and quiet enjoyment; will warrant generally, the Section 4 general warranty; and will warrant specially, the Section 5 special warranty. Their absence is stated on the deed's face, which is the whole distance between a quit claim deed and a warranty deed in Pennsylvania.

One or two names on either side, and nothing preprinted

The party blocks are free-form and hold natural persons signing in their own capacity. A four-line grantor block takes one or two names with whatever status wording the parties want on the instrument; a four-line grantee block takes one or two names followed by a designation of how they hold. Marital status, co-ownership form, and capacity are preprinted nowhere, so one document performs the release in all four count patterns: one owner to one taker, one owner to two, two owners to one, two owners to two. Two signature blocks headed GRANTOR and SECOND GRANTOR (if applicable) follow, each with a printed name and a date, and an acknowledgment certificate for each prints the short-form sentence of 57 Pa.C.S. Section 316, so two signers may appear on different dates and before officers in different states. On a release by one grantor, the second block and its certificate stay blank. What the form omits marks its outer edge: an authority section for a signer acting for a company, holding a fiduciary office, or signing under a power of attorney, and a consent line for a signer who conveys nothing.

The coal notice a quitclaim deed does not carry

Pennsylvania puts a coal and right-of-support severance notice on the face of most surface conveyances, in type distinctly different from the rest of the instrument, under the Act of July 17, 1957, P.L. 984, No. 431. The Act excepts three instruments by name, a quitclaim deed among them, so no coal notice is printed here. That exception reaches the notice and not the coal: a recorded severance of coal, oil, gas, or other minerals rides through the release untouched, and Section 8 gives the parties a place to list it.

What a recorder refuses a deed for

16 P.S. Section 9781 directs the recorder of deeds to refuse a deed unless the grantee has attached and made part of it a signed certificate giving the grantee's precise residence and complete post-office address; Section 12 is that certificate. Where a county ordinance invokes 16 P.S. Section 9781.1, the Uniform Parcel Identifier goes in or on the instrument, and Section 6 collects it. Recording answers priority rather than validity: under 21 P.S. Section 351 an unrecorded conveyance is void against a later purchaser, mortgagee, or judgment creditor without notice.

Tax that ignores the caption

Realty transfer tax pays no attention to the caption. Under 61 Pa. Code Section 91.164 the question is whether real estate actually changed hands, and where it did the 1 percent Commonwealth rate and the local municipal and school rate attach as on any deed. A nominal consideration or a claimed exclusion travels on the REV-183 Statement of Value.

The download holds the blank deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example following a Berks County release, and a guide to the twelve sections, the vesting words a Pennsylvania grantee block can carry, notarization, transfer tax paperwork, and county recording. It describes Pennsylvania law in general terms and is not legal advice.