South Dakota Warranty Deed

South Dakota writes its warranty deed twice: once as a form and once as a set of promises, and only the form goes on the paper. The legislature printed the standard warranty deed at SDCL 43-25-5 in 1911, and the covenants that make it a warranty deed live in the section that follows. That is why a properly drawn South Dakota warranty deed reads so plainly. It states who conveys, what is conveyed, what was paid, and the three operative words the statute assigns, and the law supplies the rest.

The promises the deed never prints

Under SDCL 43-25-6, an instrument duly executed in the statutory form operates as a conveyance in fee simple carrying covenants the grantor never has to write out. The statute makes the grantor answer that the estate is held in fee simple with the power to convey it, that no encumbrance burdens the premises, that the grantee's possession will go undisturbed, and that the grantor will stand behind the title against anyone who lawfully claims it. Those obligations bind the grantor's heirs and personal representatives as though spelled out at length, and they reach back through the entire chain of title rather than stopping at the grantor's own years of ownership. The contrast inside the chapter is sharp: the bare word grant carries only the two narrow covenants of SDCL 43-25-10, and a quitclaim under SDCL 43-25-8 passes whatever the grantor happens to hold, reaching no after-acquired title unless the deed says so.

Open party blocks, one or two names on each side

This is the base configuration of the South Dakota warranty deed, and its party sections are deliberately unfurnished. The grantor block and the grantee block are open blanks sized for one or two natural persons conveying and taking in their own right, in any combination, with the status wording and the co-ownership designation supplied by whoever fills the form rather than preprinted on it. The deed prints two signature blocks, headed GRANTOR and SECOND GRANTOR, and one acknowledgment certificate for each, so signers appearing before different notaries or on different days are accommodated; a single-grantor conveyance leaves the second block and its certificate unused. The form is not set up as an entity conveyance, a conveyance by a trustee or an attorney-in-fact, or a conveyance by three or more owners on either side, each of which turns on recitals and authority this configuration does not carry.

Where the survivorship words come from

The receiving side runs on a default that surprises people. SDCL 43-2-12 makes an interest created in favor of several persons an interest in common unless the deed declares a joint interest, so silence produces a tenancy in common, and South Dakota recognizes no tenancy by the entirety to change that result for spouses. Survivorship exists only where the grantee section says so, and SDCL 43-2-14 lets an owner create it by conveying directly to the owner and another without routing title through a third party.

What the register of deeds is looking at

A deed reaches the record through SDCL 43-25-26, which conditions recording on the grantor's acknowledgment, with proof by a subscribing witness as the fallback for a deed signed without a notary. The first page keeps its top three inches clear for the recording stamp, and the return and preparer blocks required by SDCL 43-28-23 sit in the open left half of that space. Money changes hands at the counter too: the register of deeds collects the recording fee of SDCL 7-9-15 and the realty transfer fee of SDCL 43-4-21, computed on value, and the deed travels to the window with a Department of Revenue Certificate of Real Estate Value, form PT-56, required by SDCL 7-9-7. A transfer qualifying for one of the SDCL 43-4-22 exemptions states it on the face of the instrument, and the form prints that recital with the subdivision left open.

Searches for a general warranty deed, a statutory warranty deed, or a South Dakota deed form with full title covenants all arrive at this instrument. The download delivers the warranty deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example filled in for a Lincoln County sale by two grantors to two grantees taking with survivorship, and a plain-language guide covering the numbered sections, the covenants, the ways grantees may hold title, and recording. The materials describe South Dakota law in general terms and are not legal advice.