Whatcom County Quitclaim Deed (Corrective) Form

A recorded Washington deed cannot be edited. Once the county auditor images it, that deed stays in the public record exactly as it was filed, and the way to fix what it says is to record a second deed that points back at the first one and states the corrected term. This form is that second deed. It carries one grantor, one grantee, a numbered section holding the auditor's file number of the deed being corrected, and two blanks that set the language side by side: as it appears in the earlier deed, and as corrected here.

Two statements, side by side

Section 6 is the section the whole form is built around. The first blank states the term as the earlier deed states it, described closely enough that a reader can find it there. The second states the same term as corrected. Section 9 then supplies the effect in operative words: the corrected statement controls over the corresponding statement in the earlier deed, and every other term of that deed continues in effect. Nothing is deleted from the record, and nothing outside the corrected term is reopened. A title examiner reading the chain finds both instruments and reads them together.

Quitclaim words doing corrective work

The conveyance runs on the statutory form of RCW 64.04.050. Conveys and quitclaims makes the instrument a good and sufficient conveyance, release, and quitclaim of the legal and equitable rights the grantor holds on the day of delivery, with no covenant of title attached and no reach to after acquired title, which the statute withholds unless a deed adds words asking for it. That measured scope is the point here: a correction restates a conveyance the parties already made rather than selling anything new, so the deed passes what the grantor has and stops.

The rule Washington wrote for corrections

Excise tax treatment has a rule of its own. WAC 458-61A-217, captioned Rerecord, keeps the rerecording of documents to correct a legal description, change contract terms, or correct the spelling of the name of a party outside the real estate excise tax, and calls for an affidavit giving the prior affidavit number, the recorded document number for the prior transaction, and a complete explanation of why the rerecording is necessary. WAC 458-61A-215 supplies a second route where a quitclaim passes for the sole purpose of clearing title with nothing given for it. That affidavit is a Department of Revenue form, obtained separately and not part of this package, and it reaches the county treasurer before the deed reaches the auditor.

A correction dated the day it is recorded

The corrective deed enters the record under its own auditor's file number and its own date. RCW 65.08.070 makes recording the source of notice and priority, so anything that reached the record between the two deeds keeps whatever position its own filing gives it. The first page of this form is built to RCW 65.04.045, with the reference number of the deed being corrected among the indexing items the auditor reads there.

One grantor, one grantee, one certificate

The form recites exactly one grantor, exactly one grantee, and one earlier deed identified by a single file number, with one signature line and one certificate in the individual capacity short form of RCW 42.45.140(1). Three error patterns present that configuration in Washington land records: a party's name carrying a misspelling or the wrong middle initial, a legal description that misstates a lot, block, plat volume, or page, and a term that reached the record in a different form than the parties gave it. What the form is not set up as: two grantor entries, a signer acting in a representative capacity, or an instrument that puts a new name on title or takes one off, which transfers an interest instead of restating one. Where the parcel is community real property, or a homestead, RCW 26.16.030(3) and RCW 6.13.060 put two signatures and two acknowledgments on the conveyance, which is not the shape of this form.

The download holds the blank deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example prepared for a Benton County correction of a misspelled grantee name, and a plain language guide to every entry, the notarization, the excise tax affidavit, and recording. Searchers also look for a correction deed, a deed of correction, or a quit claim deed to fix a name or legal description. These materials describe Washington law in general terms; they are not legal advice.