Wisconsin Quitclaim Deed (Corrective)

A recorded Wisconsin deed is not edited in place. The register of deeds may refuse a document whose scrivener's error was marked without initials, and may refuse one carrying correction fluid or tape, under Wis. Stat. § 59.43(2s)(c). A corrective quitclaim deed answers a flawed deed from the other direction: it adds a second conveyance to the chain, names the first by its document number, and sets out the earlier text beside the corrected text.

One document number, entered twice

Wis. Stat. § 59.43(2s)(b)1 lets a register of deeds refuse a correction instrument, or any other document referencing a previously recorded one, unless the new document carries the referenced document's number. Section 4 gathers it, beside the recording date, the volume and page older records carry, the county, and the parties as the earlier deed named them. The number comes due a second time away from the deed: the Department of Revenue's electronic transfer return instructions ask for the document number of the deed being corrected whenever exemption 3 is chosen.

Where correcting ends and conveying begins

Wisconsin writes the correcting exemption narrowly. Wis. Stat. § 77.25(3) reaches a conveyance which, executed for nominal, inadequate or no consideration, confirms, corrects or reforms a conveyance previously recorded, and Wis. Stat. § 77.22(1) turns naming the subsection on the instrument's face into a condition of recording an exempt conveyance. An instrument that hands the property to a different grantee, adds an owner, or picks up land the earlier deed never described is a fresh conveyance, owing 30 cents for each $100 of value like any other. The return goes in either way, since Wis. Stat. § 77.255 releases only two exemption classes from filing one.

Wisconsin's other correction route

Wisconsin has had a statutory correction instrument since 2010. Wis. Stat. § 706.085 entitles it to record in the county where the conveyance sits, lists what it may fix, from elements of a legal description to the spelling of a party's name, and lets a person with personal knowledge of the conveyance sign it and mail notice to the parties. Its record carries prima facie evidentiary weight under Wis. Stat. § 706.085(3). That instrument is drafted, signed, and recorded on its own and is not part of this package. A corrective deed travels the other road: the original grantor signs again, and the second instrument conveys.

What this configuration carries

Twelve numbered sections run from first page return information to the drafting statement of Wis. Stat. § 59.43(5)(a). Between them sit one individual grantor; one grantee with a co-ownership designation line; the prior deed section; a correction section holding a blank for what the earlier deed states and a blank for the text as corrected; the exemption line; the corrected legal description and parcel data; the operative section, which quitclaims, corrects, and confirms in one sentence; one grantor signature block; and a conditional joinder block for a spouse signing where Wis. Stat. § 706.02(1)(f) reaches the conveyance. A certificate in the Wis. Stat. § 140.16(1) short form sits under each signature line, so the two signers may appear before different notarial officers on different days. A legal description that lost its block designation between the survey and the deed, a plat name typed one word off, and a grantee's middle initial dropped from the earlier instrument all present the pattern this deed carries. Searched as a correction deed or a quit claim deed correcting a legal description, it is not drawn for two grantors of record, an entity or trustee as grantor, an agent under a power of attorney, or a change in who takes the property.

No covenants, and a flat fee

Wis. Stat. § 706.10(4) settles what a quitclaim deed moves: the interest the grantor could lawfully convey, with no covenant of title and no representation that any interest exists. Fixing a description cleans nothing else, so a mortgage, easement, or judgment of record survives the correction as it survived the deed corrected. The register of deeds charges a flat $30 under Wis. Stat. § 59.43(2)(ag)1, page count aside, and both deeds stay in the record afterward, read together by the next title examiner.

Three files arrive: the corrective quitclaim deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example filled in for a Rock County deed restoring a missing block designation to a Janesville legal description, and a plain language guide taking the numbered sections in turn through to recording. It states Wisconsin law generally, for information, and is not legal advice.