Cowlitz County Quitclaim Deed (Married Grantor with Non-Owner Spouse Joinder) Form

This Washington quitclaim deed carries one grantor and two signatures. Record title stands in one married owner's name, so that owner alone conveys, and the owner's spouse or state registered domestic partner signs a second, separately labeled block as a joining party rather than as a grantor. The form is built for that asymmetry, because two Washington statutes ask for both signatures even where only one name appears on the vesting instrument.

Two statutes, one shared answer

RCW 26.16.030(3) is the first. Property a couple acquires after marriage, or after registration of a state registered domestic partnership, is community property unless RCW 26.16.010 or RCW 26.16.020 makes it separate, and that characterization turns on the source of the acquisition rather than on whose name the recorded deed carries. A home held in one spouse's name alone can therefore be community real property, which one spouse cannot convey acting alone. The second statute is RCW 6.13.060: a homestead of a spouse or domestic partner cannot be conveyed or encumbered unless the instrument is executed and acknowledged by both. That rule is indifferent to record title. Both provisions converge on the same formality, and this deed meets it without pretending that the joining spouse is a record owner.

A joinder that releases rather than consents

The difference shows up on the record. Section 10 recites that the joining person is the grantor's spouse or state registered domestic partner, is not a record owner, joins in the execution of the deed, and acknowledges it. Then it goes further: by joining, that person conveys and quitclaims any community property interest, any homestead right, and any other interest that person has in the property, with no covenant or warranty attached. Drafted that way, the deed works whichever way the characterization question comes out. Where the property was community real property, the joining signature carries the community interest across; where it was genuinely separate property of the grantor, the joinder releases nothing of substance and the record stops inviting a later examiner to raise the point.

One grantor entry, two signature blocks, two certificates

Section 1 holds a single grantor entry for the record owner. Section 2 holds the joining spouse or state registered domestic partner, with its own blank for the relationship the joinder rests on, so the deed states that status rather than assuming it. Two labeled signature blocks follow, one for the grantor as record owner and one for the joining spouse or domestic partner, each with a printed name and a date, and each block has its own certificate in the individual capacity short form of RCW 42.45.140(1). The two signers may therefore appear on different days, or before officers in different counties. Washington law does not require a certificate per signer, the statutory short forms being written in the plural; the paired layout is a drafting decision. What the form is not set up as is a deed placing two record owners in the grantor position, or a deed with a single signature line and a single certificate.

Pierce County, and the two counters a deed crosses

The completed example is filled in for a Pierce County transfer: a father holding record title alone conveys the family home to his adult daughter for stated consideration, and the mother joins in execution and acknowledges. Consideration is stated, so the transfer is taxable. A real estate excise tax affidavit accompanies the deed to the county treasurer, who verifies the tax before the auditor may accept the instrument, and the state portion opens at 1.10 percent on the lowest band of selling price with the local rate added on top. The auditor's first page requirements are already met: the three inch recording band with the return name and address at the top left, the title immediately beneath it, the party names, an abbreviated legal description with a page reference to the complete one, the assessor's parcel or account number, and reference numbers of documents assigned or released.

What the download holds

The package contains the blank deed as a fillable PDF, the completed Pierce County example, and a plain language guide covering every blank, the notarization, the excise tax affidavit, and the statutory recording fees and surcharges. Searchers reach this configuration as a quit claim deed with spousal joinder, or as a non-owner spouse deed. The materials describe Washington law in general terms and are not legal advice.