Ritchie County Quitclaim Deed (Interspousal) Form

A deed between husband and wife reaches the West Virginia record on a single signature, and the reason sits in the recording statute itself. This form prepares that instrument: a married owner of a West Virginia parcel releases to a spouse whatever interest the owner holds, over one signature line and one notarial certificate, with nothing on the page waiting for the grantee to sign.

The signature the statute leaves out

Since July 11, 2025, West Virginia has treated a grantee's signature as a recording condition on gift quitclaims. W. Va. Code Section 39-1-2(b)(2) closes the record to a quitclaim made for no consideration when the grantee has not signed and acknowledged it, and a deed recorded against that rule is void. The subsection then carves out the transfers where it does not bite, and the first named relationship is husband and wife: the clerk of the county commission admits a transfer between spouses, made without consideration or for consideration under $2,000, even though the grantee never signed. A spousal release therefore travels on the conveying spouse's signature alone. Because the exception turns on a fact the clerk cannot read from the parties' names, Section 3 states the marriage on the face of the deed, beside the two code sections that depend on it.

A release measured against the interest one spouse holds

The deed works through release words rather than promises. W. Va. Code Section 36-3-7 construes a deed releasing all claims upon the land as a quitclaim of every right, title, and interest the grantor holds at law or in equity, and Section 9 of this form carries those words with a printed statement that no covenant or warranty accompanies them. A deed of trust, an easement, or a restriction of record stays exactly where it was. A gift needs no invented dollar figure either, because Section 36-3-6 provides that a deed is not invalid merely because consideration is neither paid nor recited.

One grantor, one grantee, one certificate

Section 1 takes the conveying spouse with a mailing address, Section 2 takes the receiving spouse, and Section 10 carries a single signature block over one acknowledgment certificate in the short form of W. Va. Code Section 39-4-16. The released interest vests in the one grantee named. Spouses performing a marital settlement agreement that directs the parcel into one of their names, spouses moving a parcel between them so that one holds title alone at a refinancing, and a spouse deeding back a parcel the other bought and titled in the first spouse's name all present the spouse-to-spouse pattern this deed recites. A conveyance running to both spouses together is outside the form: two names on the receiving side create a co-ownership, and West Virginia supplies it no survivorship unless the instrument manifests one under Section 36-1-20, Section 36-1-19 having made a deceased joint tenant's or entireties tenant's share pass as though held in common.

What a spousal transfer does not settle

Two provisions of chapter 48 follow property that moves between spouses. Under Section 48-29-202 a spouse who pays for property and takes title in the other's name is presumed to have made a gift, absent evidence of contrary intention, and the same section withdraws that presumption in an equitable distribution action, where a gift between spouses must be affirmatively proved. Under Section 48-29-201 the burden of proof falls on the receiving spouse when the conveyance is later questioned by the conveying spouse or that spouse's heir, devisee, or creditor. A recorded deed fixes the record title without answering either question in advance.

The exemption line the clerk reads

Clerks compute excise stamps from the declaration of consideration or value that W. Va. Code Section 11-22-6 places on the instrument, and they publish that a deed claiming an exemption names the ground for it. Section 11 carries the declaration with that line built in, and the completed example fills it with the ground a spousal transfer relies on, the definition of document in W. Va. Code Section 11-22-1 that leaves out transfers between husband and wife. The State Tax Commissioner Sales Listing Form, STC 12:39, comes from the clerk, travels with the deed at the counter, and is prepared separately.

The download delivers this interspousal quit claim deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example set in Wood County, and a line by line guide to the eleven sections, the signing options, and the recording package. The materials are informational and are not legal advice.