Mellette County Quitclaim Deed (Individual Grantor) Form

A South Dakota quitclaim deed set up for a single grantor: one signature line, one acknowledgment certificate, and a conveyance of whatever right, title, and interest the signer holds at the moment the deed is delivered. This fillable form prepares that conveyance under the standard quitclaim form South Dakota has carried in its code since 1911, now SDCL 43-25-7, for real property in any of the state's sixty-six counties.

A release of interest, without promises about title

The statutory quitclaim operates by the words conveys and quitclaims. Under SDCL 43-25-8, a deed in that form passes all right, title, and interest the grantor holds in the described premises at the date of the conveyance, and it does not reach title the grantor acquires later unless the deed adds words expressing that intention. This form adds none, and it says so. That present-interest mechanism is what puts the quit claim deed at the center of family transfers, co-ownership adjustments, divorce settlements, and record cleanups across South Dakota: the parties already know the title, and the deed simply moves the interest.

The quitclaim words carry implied covenants unless the deed restricts them

South Dakota adds a twist most states do not have. Under SDCL 43-25-11, the words remise, release, or quitclaim in a conveyance imply two narrow covenants unless the conveyance restricts them by express terms: that the grantor has not already conveyed the same estate to someone else, and that the estate is free of encumbrances the grantor made, did, or suffered. A bare quitclaim that never mentions covenants therefore quietly promises more than its name suggests. This deed follows the statute's own escape hatch: its operative section restricts and excludes the implied covenants in express capitalized terms, so the instrument delivers what a quitclaim is understood to deliver, the grantor's interest, whatever it is, with no covenant or warranty of title at all.

One grantor, one signature, one certificate

The form recites exactly one grantor, identified by name, marital status, and mailing address, and it carries a single notary acknowledgment certificate, the execution formality that entitles a deed to record under SDCL chapter 43-28. The single-signer architecture matches an unmarried owner, and a married owner conveying South Dakota property that is not the homestead; under SDCL 25-2-4 either spouse may convey separate property alone. A conveyance of the homestead is different: SDCL 43-31-17 makes it valid only when both spouses concur and sign, so that transfer carries two signatures and follows a different configuration than this deed recites. The grantee side stays open: the form accepts a single grantee, or co-grantees with whatever co-ownership designation the parties supply, and the guide walks through South Dakota's tenancy-in-common default and its express joint tenancy alternative.

Recording at the register of deeds

The completed deed records with the register of deeds of the county where the land lies, for a statewide fee of thirty dollars for the first fifty pages under SDCL 7-9-15. Two companions travel with it. The realty transfer fee of SDCL 43-4-21, fifty cents per five hundred dollars of value, is paid before recording unless the transfer is exempt under SDCL 43-4-22, and county intake practice expects an exempt deed to state the exemption and its subdivision on its face; the form carries a dedicated section for that statement. The certificate of real estate value required by SDCL 7-9-7 accompanies the deed as a separate filing, including on fee-exempt transfers. The document itself is built to the statewide format statute, SDCL 43-28-23: a three inch recording reserve at the top of page one with the return and preparer blocks placed where South Dakota registers look for them, one inch margins, type at the statutory ten point minimum or larger, the grantee's mailing address, and a printed name line under the signature.

The purchase delivers three pieces: the blank quitclaim deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example showing the form filled in for a realistic Minnehaha County transfer, and a plain-language guide that walks through every numbered section, the signing formalities, and the recording package. The materials are informational and are not legal advice.