Ritchie County Warranty Deed (Individual Grantor) Form

This West Virginia warranty deed is arranged for a single individual grantor: one record owner conveying with general warranty, one signature line, one acknowledgment certificate. The form pairs the conveyance itself with the two companions West Virginia recording law expects on a taxable deed, the declaration of consideration or value and the statutory preparer statement, so the printed document reaches the county clerk's counter in recordable shape.

Four words that carry the covenant

West Virginia publishes no official warranty deed form. The statutory deed of W. Va. Code 36-3-5 conveys with the word grants, and the warranty comes from covenant words layered on top: under W. Va. Code 36-4-2, the words with general warranty have the same effect as a covenant that the grantor, and the grantor's heirs and personal representatives, will forever warrant and defend the property against the claims and demands of all persons whomsoever. That covenant reaches the entire chain of title, not merely the grantor's own time in it. This deed prints the covenant words in the granting clause and states their statutory effect on the face of the document, so the instrument reads the way the statute operates.

The single-grantor configuration

The grantor section recites exactly one natural person. The signature section carries one line, and the notary block carries one acknowledgment certificate using the statutory short form wording of W. Va. Code 39-4-16, This record was acknowledged before me on. A married grantor signs alone: West Virginia abolished dower and curtesy, and no statewide statute conditions the recording of an ordinary lifetime deed on a spouse's signature. A sole owner selling a home, a relative conveying inherited land titled in one name, and an owner completing a private sale of a parcel present the single-owner pattern this deed recites; title held by co-owners, an entity, or a fiduciary presents recital and capacity patterns this form is not set up to carry.

What rides with the deed at the counter

West Virginia gates the recording counter with W. Va. Code 11-22-6. A taxable deed carries a signed declaration of consideration or value at its end, and the clerk records no document unless a completed and verified sales listing form from the State Tax Commissioner, Form STC 12:39, is tendered with it. This deed builds the declaration in, with its own signature, printed name, date, and address lines, in the statute's own wording for the total consideration paid. The excise tax itself runs $1.10 per $500 of value to the state plus a county excise tax of at least 55 cents and up to $1.65 per $500, so the combined rate varies by county, and transfers for consideration add a $20 Affordable Housing Fund fee. The sales listing form is a separate intake filing, prepared from the same entries the deed already collects: parcel identifiers, district, parties, addresses, title source, and consideration.

Formatted for West Virginia intake

W. Va. Code 39-1-11 lets a clerk refuse an instrument printed on both sides of the page, set smaller than 10 point type, or spaced with less than 2 points between lines, and an instrument accepted despite such defects pays one and one-half times the recording fee. The form stays clear of all three lines: letter size within the legal size maximum, 10 point and larger type throughout, single-sided printing, and a reserved band at the top of page one for the clerk's recording stamp. Recording order matters in West Virginia because W. Va. Code 40-1-9 makes an unrecorded deed void as to lien creditors and subsequent purchasers for valuable consideration without notice; the recording date, not the signing date, sets priority against third parties.

Inside the package

The package contains the warranty deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example showing the entire document filled in for a realistic Kanawha County sale, and a plain language guide that walks through every numbered section, the notarization, the declaration, and the recording steps, including the sales listing form, which is a state form prepared separately and not included in this package. The materials are informational and are not legal advice; a West Virginia attorney can address how the covenant and the recording rules operate on a specific title.