Utah Warranty Deed

This Utah warranty deed is arranged for one signer: a single individual grantor who conveys alone, acknowledges before a notary on one certificate, and delivers the strongest covenants Utah law attaches to a deed. The first page recites one grantor acting in the grantor's individual capacity, a grantee entry that carries the mailing address Utah recording law requires, and the statutory operative words that make the instrument a warranty deed rather than any lesser conveyance.

Conveys and warrants, the full covenant package

Utah Code Section 57-1-12 supplies the statutory warranty deed form, and its operative words are conveys and warrants. A deed in that form conveys fee simple title with the covenants the section describes: that the grantor lawfully owns the premises, has good right to convey them, guarantees the grantee quiet possession, that the premises are free from all encumbrances, and that the grantor will forever warrant and defend the title against all lawful claims. The same section allows exceptions to the covenants to be inserted after the land description, and the form carries a labeled exceptions section for that statutory insertion, where recorded easements, restrictions, and current year taxes commonly appear. Utah's after-acquired title statute completes the picture: title the grantor acquires later passes automatically under a conveyance purporting to convey fee simple, an effect the statute withholds from quitclaim deeds.

One grantor, one signature, one certificate

The configuration is the variant. The form recites exactly one grantor and carries one signature line and one acknowledgment certificate based on the statutory acknowledgment form in Utah Code Section 46-1-6.5. A sole owner conveying to a buyer, a parent passing a home to an adult child, and a co-owner conveying that co-owner's undivided interest all present the single grantor pattern this deed recites. A married grantor's signature stands alone here: Utah imposes no universal spousal joinder on a lifetime deed, and the one statutory joinder rule turns on a homestead declaration recorded before the conveyance, a point the guide covers with its citation. The form is not set up as a two grantor instrument or as an entity, trustee, or attorney in fact conveyance; those patterns carry different signature and acknowledgment architecture.

The grantee side is open: one grantee taking sole ownership, or two or more grantees taking under a co-ownership designation. Since May 1, 2024, a Utah deed to two or more persons in their own right is presumed to create a joint tenancy with rights of survivorship unless it expressly declares otherwise, so the wording of the designation controls the result, and the guide describes each form Utah recognizes with the words that create it.

Built for the Utah recording counter

A Utah deed is recorded with the county recorder of the county where the land lies, and the recording statutes read requirements onto the face of the document: a first page title identifying the transaction, the grantees' mailing address for assessment and taxation, a legal description, and notarization with a legible stamp. The form carries each of those on its face, reserves the upper portion of the first page for the recorder's stamp, and prints on white letter size paper with 1 inch margins and 10 point type, matching the format standards Utah counties adopt under Section 17-71-402. Utah collects no transfer tax with an ordinary deed; the statewide base recording fee is 40 dollars, counties of the second through sixth class add 5 dollars, and several county recorders publish 45 dollars on their current schedules. An optional water rights addendum, described in the guide, documents for the State Engineer which water rights travel with the land.

What the download contains

Searches for this instrument also use the names general warranty deed and full covenant deed; in Utah the statutory label is simply warranty deed, and this package prepares the individual grantor version of it. The download contains the warranty deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example showing every entry on a Salt Lake County fact pattern, and a plain language guide that walks through each numbered section, the notarization step, and the recording steps. The materials are informational and are not legal advice.