Douglas County Quitclaim Deed (Married Grantor with Non-Owner Spouse Joinder) Form

One name on the grantor line, two signatures at the bottom. This fillable South Dakota quitclaim deed is built for a married person holding record title alone: the owner conveys whatever interest the owner holds, and the owner's spouse signs a separate block that transfers nothing and promises nothing, concurring as SDCL 43-31-17 contemplates for a homestead.

A signature that concurs instead of conveying

Most deeds treat every signature as a conveyance; this one does not. Section 1 names the grantor, the person shown on the recorded vesting deed, and Section 2 names that person's spouse, who holds no interest of record. Section 8, the operative section, states that the spouse named in Section 2 is not a grantor, signs solely to concur under SDCL 43-31-17, transfers no separate interest, and gives no covenant or warranty of title. The chain of title still runs through the record owner alone.

Why South Dakota looks at the marriage, not the vesting deed

SDCL 43-31-17 provides that a conveyance or encumbrance of a homestead by its owner, if married and both spouses are residents of this state, is valid if both spouses concur in and sign or execute the conveyance, by joint instrument or by separate instruments. Two features shape this product: the statute asks about the marriage and the homestead, not whose name the vesting deed carries, and it accepts one joint instrument, which is what this deed is. In Wisner v. Pavlin, 2006 SD 64, 719 N.W.2d 770, the South Dakota Supreme Court held the section to its language, declining to extend the requirement to co-owners who were never married. Away from the homestead, SDCL 25-2-4 leaves either spouse free to convey separate property alone.

What a South Dakota quit claim deed passes, and what it withholds

The instrument follows the SDCL 43-25-7 standard quitclaim form, whose operative words are conveys and quitclaims. SDCL 43-25-8 fixes the reach: the instrument conveys all right, title, and interest of the grantor in the premises described and stops there, picking up no title acquired afterward unless words expressing that intention are added. This form adds none and says so. One wrinkle separates a South Dakota quitclaim from the common-law instrument: under SDCL 43-25-11, quitclaim words imply two covenants unless the deed restricts them by express terms, one against an earlier conveyance of the same estate, one against encumbrances the grantor made, did, or suffered. Section 8 takes the statute's express-terms route in capital letters, so what reaches the grantee is interest, with no title promises attached.

One grantor block, one joinder block, two certificates

The form recites exactly one grantor, entered with name, marital status, and mailing address, and one joining spouse, entered with name, address, and relationship to the grantor. Both signature blocks carry a printed-name line, which SDCL 43-28-23 makes recording content beneath a signature, and each signer has a certificate of acknowledgment, a layout choice letting the two appear before different officers or on different days. Ownership patterns presenting this architecture include a residence one spouse owned before the marriage and never retitled, and an inherited homestead where the record is meant to show one grantor conveying and a spouse concurring without warranting anything. An unmarried sole owner, spouses who both convey interests of their own, three or more owners, and trustee or entity grantors each print a different configuration. The grantee side stays open to one grantee or several, with a blank for the co-ownership designation the guide covers beside the SDCL 43-2-12 default.

Recording in the county where the land lies

The signed deed goes to the register of deeds where the property sits, and SDCL 7-9-15 sets a statewide thirty dollar charge for a deed's first fifty pages. The realty transfer fee of SDCL 43-4-21 runs fifty cents per five hundred dollars of value; the example's seventy-five thousand dollar consideration yields seventy-five dollars. A transfer claiming a SDCL 43-4-22 exemption instead states the exemption and its subdivision on the deed's face, which Section 7 receives, and the SDCL 7-9-7 certificate of real estate value travels with the deed either way. Format is statutory under SDCL 43-28-23, and a nonconforming deed is surcharged under SDCL 43-28-24 rather than refused.

The package holds three files: the blank deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example built on a Lincoln County fact pattern, and a guide walking blank by blank through the sections, the signing mechanics, and what the register of deeds collects. The materials are informational and are not legal advice.