Benton County Warranty Deed (Two Grantors) Form

One Washington deed can carry two grantors, and this form is built around exactly that pair: a Washington statutory warranty deed under RCW 64.04.030 with two grantor entries, two signature lines, and a separate notary acknowledgment certificate for each signer. Married couples, state registered domestic partners, and unmarried co-owners passing their combined interests in one instrument present the two-grantor pattern this deed recites. Title practice also calls the instrument a general warranty deed; in Washington the operative language and the covenants come from the statute itself.

Two grantors, two signatures, two certificates

The form recites exactly two grantors, each an individual signing in a personal capacity. Each grantor has a name-and-status entry in the first section, a signature line over a printed name, and an acknowledgment certificate in the individual capacity short form of RCW 42.45.140, so the two signers may acknowledge on different dates, before different notarial officers, or in different states. The paired certificates are the form's architecture rather than a statutory command: Washington's short form certificates are written in the plural and permit one certificate to name every signer who appears before the same officer for the same notarial act. A sole owner's conveyance, an entity conveyance, and a trustee or attorney in fact signing in a representative capacity present execution patterns different from the two individual-capacity certificates this form carries.

The execution rule for community real property

Washington is a community property state, and the two-signature pattern is the one its statutes describe for a married couple's real estate. Under RCW 26.16.030(3), neither spouse nor state registered domestic partner may sell, convey, or encumber community real property unless the other joins in executing the deed, and both must acknowledge it; RCW 6.13.060 applies the same both-sign, both-acknowledge rule to a conveyance of homestead property. A deed with two grantor signature lines and two certificates puts that joinder on the face of the recorded instrument. The identical layout serves co-owners who are not married to each other, in the pattern of two tenants in common or two joint tenants passing the whole title to one grantee in a single recorded deed.

Covenants both grantors make

A deed in the RCW 64.04.030 statutory form is a fee simple conveyance with the statute's implied covenants: lawful seisin of an indefeasible estate, good right and full power to convey, freedom from encumbrances, and a warranty of quiet and peaceable possession with a duty to defend the title against all lawful claims. The covenants bind the grantors together with their heirs and personal representatives, and they reach the whole chain of title, not merely the grantors' own period of ownership. The form's exceptions section states the recorded matters the covenants are made subject to, in the style of plat restrictions and recorded easements, so the promise on the deed and the county record can agree.

Through the treasurer's window, then the auditor's counter

The layout is built to RCW 65.04.045: a full three inch recording band at the top of the first page, the return address block on its top left, and first-page entries for the names of both grantors and the grantee, an abbreviated legal description, and the assessor's parcel number that the county auditor indexes by. A sale also has a tax stop before recording. Chapter 82.45 RCW imposes the real estate excise tax, and the county treasurer processes the excise tax affidavit and marks the tax paid or not due before a taxable deed is accepted for recording; the guide covers the affidavit, the graduated state and local rates, the exemption codes for gifts and other nonsale transfers, and the recording fees and statutory surcharges collected per instrument.

The completed example runs the entire document on a Spokane County fact pattern, a married couple conveying to a single buyer, from the return address block through both notary certificates, so every blank on the two-grantor form has a model entry. The download contains the blank warranty deed as a fillable PDF, the completed example, and the plain language guide. The materials are informational and are not legal advice; how these rules operate on a particular title or transaction is a question for a Washington attorney.