Ritchie County Quitclaim Deed (Married Couple as Grantors) Form

Marriage does specific legal work on a West Virginia quitclaim deed, and this form is arranged around it. Both spouses sign as grantors of one release running to a single grantee, and each signature carries a notarial certificate naming that spouse. The marital relationship appears in the operative section, the second signature answers a statute with few counterparts elsewhere, and the relationships in the transfer decide whether the conditional grantee block operates.

Why the second spouse signs

West Virginia abolished dower and curtesy in W. Va. Code Section 43-1-1, replacing the old marital interest with a notice duty. Section 43-1-2 directs a married person conveying an interest in real estate to notify his or her spouse before the conveyance or within thirty days after it, where dower would once have reached that interest. The conveying spouse carries the burden of proving compliance, met by that spouse's signature on the conveyance instrument or by other competent evidence. A failure creates no lien; the consequence surfaces on a divorce within five years, when the value of the real estate at the conveyance is deemed part of the conveyancer's marital property for equitable distribution. In Rosier v. Rosier, the Supreme Court of Appeals described the provision as making certain that transfers of holdings standing in one spouse's name alone were known to the other spouse.

A release measured by what the grantors hold

The operative language is a release, not a promise. W. Va. Code Section 36-3-7 gives words releasing to the grantee all claims upon the land the effect of a quitclaim of every right, title, and interest the grantor holds at law or in equity, and this deed carries those words with the remise, release, and quitclaim clause. Its face states that no covenant or warranty of title accompanies it, so recorded liens, easements, and restrictions ride through untouched. An owner searching for a quit claim deed lands on this instrument.

What the form recites

Section 1 collects Grantor 1 and Grantor 2 by name and mailing address, Section 2 collects one grantee, and Section 8 states that the grantors are married to each other before releasing their interest. Each releases only what that grantor holds, so the deed operates the same on equal shares, unequal shares, or an interest of uncertain extent. Spouses where one holds title of record and the other signs to release whatever interest the marriage may have produced, and spouses whose older deed linked their names with the word "or", which Section 36-1-20 reads as a survivorship tenancy absent contrary wording, both present the pattern this deed recites. The form carries exactly two individual grantors, married to each other, and one grantee; a sole owner, three or more owners, or an entity or fiduciary follows a different execution pattern.

Marriage supplies no survivorship in West Virginia

Spouses reading their source of title meet a state peculiarity. Section 36-1-19 provides that a deceased joint tenant's or tenant by the entireties' share passes as though the co-owner had been a tenant in common, so survivorship exists only where an instrument manifestly says so under Section 36-1-20. Entirety wording copied from a neighboring state does nothing here. Section 6 asks for the prior instrument by date, deed book, and page, the "And Being" paragraph clerks expect.

Consideration, stamps, and the paper that travels alongside

Section 9 prints the declaration of consideration or value required by W. Va. Code Section 11-22-6 in whichever alternative fits the transfer, the amount paid or the property's true and actual value, with a signature line, the signer's stated interest, and an address beneath it. The clerk reads that figure when computing excise stamps at the state rate of $1.10 for each $500 of value, plus the county's own excise and the $20 Affordable Housing Fund fee on transfers for consideration. It also governs the conditional grantee block: a release with consideration paid, like the completed example, sits outside Section 39-1-2(b)(2), while a gift outside the spousal, parent and child, and grandparent and grandchild relationships named there reaches the record only with the grantee's own signature and certificate. Every recorded document travels with the State Tax Commissioner's sales listing form of district, parcel numbers, and mailing addresses.

The download includes this married couple quitclaim deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example set in Berkeley County, and a line by line guide covering the eleven sections and the recording package. The materials are informational and are not legal advice.