Whatcom County Quitclaim Deed (Individual Grantor by Attorney-in-Fact) Form

Nobody named as grantor signs this Washington quitclaim deed. Record title stands in one individual's name, and an attorney-in-fact signs for that owner under a power of attorney. The form is configured for exactly that: one grantor entry naming the principal, a second naming the agent, a numbered section identifying the power of attorney by date and recording reference, and one certificate taken in representative capacity.

Washington put the quitclaim verb in its agency statute

Chapter 11.125 RCW, the Uniform Power of Attorney Act effective January 1, 2017, spells out what an agent may do with land. RCW 11.125.270(2) provides that language granting general authority with respect to real property lets the agent sell, exchange, convey, quitclaim, release, encumber, or partition an interest in real property. Quitclaim is the statute's own word, so the agent's authority and a deed drawn on RCW 64.04.050 speak in the same verbs. A citation to that section incorporates the whole of it under RCW 11.125.250(3), and RCW 11.125.240(8) supplies the consequence: the agent's act binds the principal and the principal's successors as if the principal had performed it.

Authority a general grant does not carry

Some conveyances take more than that. Under RCW 11.125.240(1) an agent may make a gift, or create or change rights of survivorship, only where the power of attorney expressly grants that power, so a deed for no consideration and a deed vesting title in declared joint tenants each turn on express language. Subsection (4) closes another door: unless the document provides otherwise, an agent who is not an ancestor, spouse, state registered domestic partner, or descendant of the principal may not use the authority to create an interest in the agent. Section 7 collects the granting provision itself.

A certificate that names a person, not a company

The representative short form of RCW 42.45.140(2) usually ends with a company name. On this deed the party on whose behalf the record was executed is a human being, the principal, so the finished certificate reads that the agent acknowledged as attorney-in-fact for the named owner. What the acknowledgment declares comes from RCW 42.45.010(1): signing in a representative capacity carries a declaration of proper authority and of signing as the act of the person identified in the record. The Department of Licensing notary public guide lists a power of attorney among the representative situations, and RCW 42.45.050 leaves the identity check with the officer, who must be satisfied about the agent actually appearing.

One principal, one agent, one certificate

The form recites exactly one grantor and exactly one signer for that grantor. Three record patterns present the configuration: an owner abroad when a closing date lands, an owner on military assignment, and an owner whose adult child handles the owner's affairs under a durable power of attorney. What the form is not set up as: two grantor entries, a grantor signing personally, a separately labeled block for a joining party, or a certificate in individual capacity. Community real property and homestead conveyances take execution and acknowledgment by both spouses or both state registered domestic partners under RCW 26.16.030(3) and RCW 6.13.060, a two signature arrangement this form does not hold.

Whose signature the treasurer accepts

Two counters stand between this deed and the record. An excise tax affidavit travels with the conveyance to the county treasurer, who verifies the tax before RCW 82.45.090 permits the auditor to accept the instrument. Agency reaches that form too: under WAC 458-61A-102(1) the grantor and grantee, or their agents, sign the affidavit under penalty of perjury, and the Department of Revenue adds that an agent may sign the supplemental statement certain exemptions take, where the appointing documents allow real estate transfers. The power of attorney is itself recordable, RCW 65.04.030 listing powers of attorney to convey real estate among the instruments a county auditor records, and Section 7 carries its auditor's file number and county.

What the deed moves is measured at delivery: the interest the principal holds that day, no covenant of title with it. This purchase delivers the blank deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example filled in for a Kittitas County conveyance between cotenants signed by the owner's adult son, and a plain language guide to every entry, the notarization, the excise tax affidavit, and recording. Searchers also look for a quit claim deed signed under a power of attorney, or an attorney in fact deed. The materials describe Washington law in general terms and are not legal advice.