Pennsylvania Warranty Deed

A Pennsylvania warranty deed for one individual grantor puts the broadest statutory promise Pennsylvania law describes behind the title: the covenant that the grantor will warrant generally the property hereby conveyed. This form prepares that deed for exactly one owner conveying in the owner's own right, with one grantor section, one signature line, and one acknowledgment certificate.

The statutory words that carry the warranty

Pennsylvania builds deed covenants out of specific statutory phrases rather than out of the document's label. Under 21 P.S. Section 1, the words grant and convey pass a fee simple where the grantor held one, and under Section 3 those words carry limited built-in covenants of seisin, freedom from the grantor's own encumbrances, and quiet enjoyment against the grantor. The general warranty is a separate phrase with its own statute: under 21 P.S. Section 4, a grantor who states that the grantor will warrant generally the property hereby conveyed warrants the title against the lawful claims and demands of all persons, reaching the whole chain of title rather than only the grantor's own acts. This deed, often searched as a Pennsylvania general warranty deed, carries the Section 4 phrase in full, together with the habendum and the appurtenances language of Section 2.

The deed also states what the warranty does not cover. Its under and subject section lists the recorded easements, covenants, severances, and taxes the conveyance remains subject to, and both the conveyance and the warranty are made under and subject to that list, so a matter the deed itself discloses is excepted from the covenant.

One owner, one signature, one certificate

The form recites a single individual grantor. The grantor section holds one owner's name, capacity description, and mailing address; the execution section carries one signature line; and one notary certificate in the statutory short form wording of 57 Pa.C.S. Section 316 serves that signature. An unmarried owner conveying to a buyer, an owner who took title alone before marriage, and a divorced former owner conveying the separately transferable half that 23 Pa.C.S. Section 3507 creates from former entireties property all present the single grantor pattern this deed recites.

Married co-ownership follows a different pattern. Pennsylvania presumes that spouses hold as tenants by the entirety, an indivisible estate that both spouses convey together, so a title held by two people is a two signature configuration this form is not set up to carry. The guide walks through the entireties presumption, the vesting forms available to the grantees, and the statutory default when a deed names two or more grantees without stating a form.

Built for Pennsylvania recording counters

Several Pennsylvania recording requirements live on the face of this form. The certificate of residence required by 16 P.S. Section 9781 appears at the end of the deed: the recorder of deeds must refuse a deed presented without the grantee's signed statement of precise residence and complete post-office address. The coal and right of support notice of the Act of July 17, 1957 prints entirely in capital letters, as the act permits. A blank for the county tax parcel or Uniform Parcel Identifier serves the counties whose ordinances under 16 P.S. Section 9781.1 make the number a recording condition, and the first page reserves roughly its top three inches, with the prepared by and return to blocks at the top left, matching the published first page standards of the largest Pennsylvania counties.

Recording happens at the recorder of deeds of the county where the land lies, and Pennsylvania realty transfer tax is collected there: one percent to the Commonwealth plus the local rate, which ranges from another one percent in much of the state to substantially more in Philadelphia. The guide describes the Statement of Value form that accompanies gift and exemption transfers, the county fee schedules, and the priority rule of 21 P.S. Section 351 that rewards prompt recording.

The package delivers the warranty deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example showing the entire document filled in for a realistic Dauphin County transaction, and a plain language guide that walks through every section of the form, the notarization, and the recording process. The materials describe Pennsylvania law in general terms and are not legal advice.