Tennessee Warranty Deed

Tennessee will not register a deed that fails to say where the grantor's own title came from. Section 66-24-110 makes that recital a condition of registration, one of several entries a register reads off the face of a conveyance. This general warranty deed collects all of them, and it leaves the party blocks open: one or two natural persons sign as grantor, one or two take as grantee, and the words describing how the grantees hold are written into the grantee block rather than printed on the form.

The recital that makes a Tennessee deed registrable

The derivation of title recital names the instrument the grantor took title under, the office holding it, and the book and page or other reference; where the grantor inherited, it says so and points to the last recorded instrument. Four more entries sit beside it, each with its own blank: the assessor's parcel identification number under Section 66-24-122, the names and addresses of the property owner and of the party who takes the tax bills under Section 66-24-114, the preparer's name and address under Section 66-24-115, and a line at the end of the legal description, under Section 66-24-121, naming the surveyor or stating that the description repeats the earlier deed. In a metropolitan county such as Davidson, Section 66-24-113 adds a property identification map number and, for improved land, the street address at that spot.

One form, four party patterns

The instrument recites one free-form grantor block and one free-form grantee block, each sized for one or two natural persons, so one owner conveying alone, one owner conveying to a pair, two owners conveying to one taker, and two owners conveying to two all run through the same document. Two signature blocks and two acknowledgment certificates follow, and where one grantor conveys, the second block and its certificate go unused. Nothing about marital status, capacity, or how the grantees hold is preprinted on the recorded pages: a status recital after a grantor's name and a vesting designation after the grantee names are typed entries. The configurations this deed is not set up as are the ones that change the signature line rather than the head count, an entity signing through an officer, a trustee conveying out of a trust, an attorney in fact under a recorded power, and three or more owners on either side.

A warranty measured by what the deed excepts

Section 66-5-103(1)(A) puts the general warranty conveyance in a single sentence, and Tennessee asks nothing more elaborate: Section 66-5-101 passes whatever estate the grantor holds unless the deed limits it, and Section 66-1-101 retired words of inheritance. What sizes the promise is the exceptions section. An easement, subdivision restriction, mineral reservation, or lien written onto the face of the instrument sits outside the warranty, and anything left off stays inside it. Under Section 66-3-104, conveying by general warranty deed with knowledge of an outstanding lien or claim and with intent to defraud is a felony.

The 2026 rule on new legal descriptions

Section 66-5-105, amended by Public Chapter 996 and effective May 19, 2026, requires a description of property not previously described in a recorded instrument to be prepared by a registered land surveyor, or by a licensed attorney working from a survey a registered surveyor prepared; deeds prepared by or for a governmental agency are excepted. A conveyance repeating a description already of record, the ordinary case for an existing platted lot, sits outside the rule, and the source of description blank is where the deed records which situation applies.

Sworn at the counter

Under Section 67-4-409, the grantee, the grantee's agent, or a trustee acting for the grantee swears to the actual consideration or the property's value, whichever is greater, and the register computes the state realty transfer tax on that figure before recording. The oath sits at the end of the instrument with its own amount blank, affiant signature line, and jurat. Registration is what protects the buyer against everyone else: Section 66-26-102 makes a registered instrument notice to all the world from the moment it is noted, and Section 66-26-103 leaves an unregistered one void against creditors and later purchasers.

What the download contains

The purchase delivers the fillable Tennessee warranty deed, a completed example filled in on a Hamilton County transaction in which two owners convey to two grantees taking together, and a guide covering the deed section by section, execution, the oath, and registration. The materials are informational and are not legal advice.