Smith County Quitclaim Deed Form

A Texas quitclaim deed releases to the grantee whatever right, title, and interest the grantor holds in real property, if any, without any warranty of title. It is commonly associated with releases of claimed or uncertain interests, including divorce-related transfers, inherited-property transfers among co-heirs, family transfers, and releases intended to remove a doubtful claim from the title record.

How a Texas Quitclaim Deed Works

No Texas statute creates the quitclaim deed; it is a common law conveyance. Texas case law distinguishes a deed that conveys property from an instrument that conveys or releases only the grantor's rights in that property, if any. This form is drafted around that distinction. It releases and quitclaims the grantor's interest, and it expressly disclaims the covenants that Property Code Section 5.023 would otherwise imply from words such as grant or convey, so the instrument carries no covenant of title.

The grantee receives whatever interest the grantor holds at delivery, if any, without title warranty covenants. The form therefore documents a release of the grantor's possible interest rather than a warranted conveyance of title.

Texas law also addresses the quitclaim deed's effect in the recording system. Under long standing case law, a buyer taking by quitclaim took with notice of doubts about the title and could not be a bona fide purchaser. Property Code Section 13.006, added in 2021, provides that a quitclaim recorded on or after September 1, 2021 loses that effect four years after recording. The guide explains this rule alongside the recording statutes and the photo identification requirement for presenting deeds in person at the clerk's office.

What This Form Describes

The form provides space for one or two grantors and one or more grantees. The two-grantor arrangement also reflects Texas homestead law. Because a quitclaim deed is a present conveyance, Texas Family Code Section 5.001 addresses spousal joinder for a conveyance of homestead property. The form includes a second grantor signature area that can be used for a joining spouse, with a separate notary certificate for each signer.

The quitclaim deed carries no covenants of title. Warranty deed forms, including general warranty deeds and special warranty deeds, contain title warranty covenants that a quitclaim deed does not include. The Texas Transfer on Death Deed (Individual) operates on a different timeline: it is revocable during the owner's life and is designed for a transfer that occurs at death rather than as a present lifetime conveyance.

What Is Included

• The blank quitclaim deed as a fillable PDF, completed on screen or printed and completed by hand
• A plain language guide that walks through every numbered section: what each blank asks, where the information typically comes from, and how a sample entry may look
• A completed example showing the entire document filled in for a realistic Texas fact pattern

The document is formatted for Texas recording standards: letter size pages within the dimensions of Local Government Code Section 191.007, body text well above the 8 point minimum, the notice of confidentiality rights required by Property Code Section 11.008 in 12 point boldfaced capitals at the top of the first page, and reserved space on page one for the county clerk's recording stamp. A separate instructions page, removed before recording, covers completion conventions such as exhibit continuation pages, so the recorded document carries only the statutory notice and the deed itself, free of worksheet-style captions.

Related Texas Forms

The Texas Deed Without Warranty is another no-warranty Texas deed form. Unlike a quitclaim deed, which releases whatever right, title, or interest the grantor may have, if any, a deed without warranty is structured as a conveyance of real property without title warranties from the grantor.