Smith County Quitclaim Deed (Divorce) Form

A docket number sits on the face of this Tennessee quitclaim deed. Section 3 names the court, the case number, the date the decree was entered, and the marital dissolution agreement behind it, so one party's release of an interest to the other reaches the register's books already tied to the proceeding that called for it.

Two ways title leaves a Tennessee divorce

Tennessee gives a divorce court direct power over land. T.C.A. Section 36-4-121 empowers the court to effectuate its decree by divesting and reinvesting title to marital property, and where that happens the record instrument is the decree: Section 66-24-101(a)(18) makes certified copies of decrees divesting the title of land out of one person and vesting it in another eligible for registration, obtained from the clerk and registered separately. The other path runs through the parties. A decree or a marital dissolution agreement that calls for a conveyance leaves that transfer to be signed, and this deed carries it into the records over that party's own signature, with the derivation of title recital of Section 66-24-110 and the parcel and tax party entries a Tennessee register reads at intake.

What the marital estate becomes when the marriage ends

Spouses who took Tennessee title together ordinarily held it by the entirety, an estate Bryant v. Bryant, 522 S.W.3d 392 (Tenn. 2017), describes as one no spouse can sever alone while the marriage lasts. Divorce ends the unity that estate stands on, and Tennessee practice treats former spouses as tenants in common afterward unless the decree supplies something else. T.C.A. Section 31-1-102 drops a divorced former spouse out of surviving spouse status at the same moment, and Section 32-1-202 revokes will provisions in favor of a former spouse. Section 4 of the form records where the parties stand on the day of signing, which tells a later reader whether the joint consent sentence of Section 26-2-301(b), a rule that runs while a marital relationship exists, still reached the conveyance.

One party conveying, one party receiving

The form recites exactly one Grantor, a party to the divorce signing personally, and one Grantee, the other party to that same proceeding. It carries a single signature block, one acknowledgment certificate in the substance of T.C.A. Section 66-22-107, and, beneath Section 16, a separate signature line and jurat for the person who swears the consideration figure, since acknowledging a signature and administering an oath are different notarial acts. A decree awarding the marital residence to one party while the other releases an undivided one-half interest, and a party signing while the case is still pending under a property settlement agreement, present the movements this deed recites. It is not drawn for two record owners releasing together, for an entity or a trustee signing in a representative capacity, or for a signer acting under a power of attorney.

The exemption Tennessee wrote for divorcing parties

Recording carries the deed past a tax counter, at thirty seven cents per one hundred dollars of consideration or value, whichever is greater. Divorce has its own line in that statute: T.C.A. Section 67-4-409(a) exempts domestic settlement decrees, domestic decrees, and deeds that are an adjustment of property rights between divorcing parties, and adds that no oath of value is required in a transaction exempt from the tax. The Department of Revenue publishes it as notice REC-14. Where tax is owed, a deed keeping the statutory quitclaim substance of Section 66-5-103(2) is measured on actual consideration rather than appraised value, under Section 67-4-409(a)(4). Section 16 holds a line for the sworn figure and a line for the exemption claimed.

What a release does not settle

What passes is the conveying party's interest exactly as it stands, with no covenant of title behind it. Deeds of trust, judgment liens, easements, and unpaid taxes stay attached to the land, and moving title does not move the debt: a party who signed the note remains liable until a lender's release, a refinance, or an approved assumption says otherwise. Searchers reach this instrument as a divorce quitclaim deed, a quit claim deed after divorce, or a deed transferring a house in a divorce settlement.

The purchase delivers the deed as a blank fillable PDF, a completed Davidson County example carried from the docket line through to the jurat beneath the oath, and a plain language guide walking the sixteen sections, the notarial acts, and the register's counter. All of it describes Tennessee law generally, for information, and none of it is legal advice.