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

Two documents reach the county clerk in order when an agent releases West Virginia land, and this quitclaim deed is the second of them. The power of attorney is recorded first, and the deed carries its book and page on the face of Section 2. The form is arranged for one individual grantor whose interest is released by one attorney-in-fact, to a single grantee.

The power of attorney goes on record first

W. Va. Code Section 39B-2-104(a)(2) is where an agent's authority over West Virginia real property sits, reaching quitclaims and releases along with sales and conveyances with or without covenants. Subsection (b) adds a sequence the uniform act does not contain: to exercise those powers, the power of attorney must first be recorded in the office of the clerk of the county commission in the county in which the property is located. An agent-signed release therefore arrives behind its own authority, and Section 2 collects the agent, the date of the power of attorney, its recording reference, and the authority relied on ahead of the release words.

Whose deed it is

The signature line belongs to the agent; the deed belongs to the owner. W. Va. Code Section 36-1-8 settles that: where a deed of land is made by one as attorney in fact for another, and the words of conveyance or the signature stand in the name of the attorney, the instrument is as much the principal's deed as if they had been in the principal's name by the attorney, where the instrument's face manifests that reading. Section 9 is drafted to that standard, and the certificate names the signer in that capacity, following the representative short form of W. Va. Code Section 39-4-16.

Where an agent's pen stops

General authority does not reach everything. W. Va. Code Section 39B-2-101(a) keeps making a gift off the general grant, so a release passing no consideration rests on express gift language, and Section 39B-2-117 sets default gift limits at the annual federal gift tax exclusion. Subsection (b) reaches further: unless the power of attorney provides otherwise, an agent may not create in the agent, or in someone the agent supports, an interest in the principal's property, by gift, right of survivorship, beneficiary designation, or disclaimer.

A release, and the 2025 signature it can attract

W. Va. Code Section 36-3-7 gives release words the effect of a quitclaim of all right, title, and interest at law and in equity, and this quit claim deed prints them without a covenant word from chapter 36, article 4, so a deed of trust, a judgment lien, an easement, or a mineral reservation rides through untouched. Since July 11, 2025, Section 39-1-2(b)(2) has made a quitclaim without consideration void where it reaches the record without the grantee's execution and acknowledgment, subject to the family exceptions listed there. Those exceptions measure the relationship between the grantee and the principal who owns the interest, never the agent who signs, and Section 11 draws the conditional block they govern.

One owner, one agent, one signature line

Section 1 takes the principal as grantor, Section 2 the attorney-in-fact and the power of attorney behind the signature, Section 3 a single grantee, and Section 10 one signature over one certificate. An owner out of state whose parcel is released through a local agent, an owner under a durable power of attorney whose agent closes a buyout of a co-owned parcel, and an owner whose agent clears a fractional interest so a co-owner's record reads clean all present the agent-signed pattern this deed recites. Coagents required to act together, an owner signing in person, and a court-appointed conservator or guardian each sign through blocks this form does not draw. No spousal line appears either, Section 43-1-1 having abolished dower and curtesy.

The figure the clerk reads

Section 12 carries the Section 11-22-6 declaration of consideration or value, which sits at the end of a taxable instrument and which the agent most often signs here. From it the clerk computes stamps at $1.10 for each $500 of value under Section 11-22-2, plus a county excise and the $20 Affordable Housing Fund fee. The State Tax Commissioner sales listing form is prepared separately.

This package contains the deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example worked through a Putnam County buyout closed by an agent, and a guide to the twelve sections and the recording order. The materials are informational and are not legal advice.