For a lot of people, being able to claim your very own piece of land or property would be a dream come true. When you get to own land under your name, it’s possible to utilize it for personal reasons (such as constructing a private living space to take residence in) or business needs, like setting up a site of operations for your company or organization to conduct its work in. Once someone is allowed to gain such land for themselves to have, legally binding agreement or assignment for deed will serve all parties better.
In real estate, a deed agreement is a type of document used to legalize and officiate the exchange of land ownership from one person to another. However, the task of creating a deed for the sake of acquiring a property can be a little more complicated and nuanced than what the average person might have expected. There are also multiple types of deeds you can use depending on specific details related to the trade. These types are listed as general warranty deeds, special warranty deeds, and quitclaim deeds. On this page, you’ll find several downloadable deed agreement samples that you can make use of for your own needs.
When talking about the sale and purchase of property, a formal contract needs to be mutually met between the seller of the land, usually referred to as the “grantor” and the interested party, often known as the “grantee.” That’s what we have a deed agreement for—granting legal ownership, either in full or to a certain degree, and ownership security to the new holder purchasing the real estate. The variation of the ownership is dependent on the type of deed you wish to establish. No matter what type of deed that might be used in the agreement, it’s still crucial to have one to legalize the exchange and guarantee the consent from both parties in order to do so.
When you’ve got some land property to work with, it would be nice to know that you have full control over that space and secured ownership of it. That’s where a general warranty deed comes into play, giving complete coverage under all of the six covenants (or guarantees) that are involved in the handling of a warranty deed. With a general warranty deed, one of the securities granted to the new owner is that of protection against any of the future claims that the seller might have. There is also a guarantee against defects to the property. There are times when the current owner is the one who caused damage to the property. At such times, it is important to hold the responsible party accountable before you sign anything.
For the creation and usage of deed agreements in property exchange, there is a set of 6 guarantees referred to as “covenants” that are involved. You can organize these provisions into two categories of 3—present covenants and future covenants. The list of present covenants contains the Covenant of Seisen, the Covenant Against Encumbrances, and the Covenant of the Right to Convey. While in the group of future covenants, there is the Covenant of Quiet Enjoyment, the Covenant of Warranty, and the Covenant for Further Assurances. Each of these covenants acts as a promise or guarantee from the seller to the buyer regarding the property for lease or sale. Doing so will help ensure full holding and control over the property to the new owner.
A different type of deed agreement is that of a special warranty deed. For this document, there is less of a guarantee offered to the grantee, as it will not cover all of the six covenants and typically has a lower level of protection for any of the covenants that it might list. Such are the provisions of this agreement since it is meant to grant only temporary ownership of the property to the grantee (or it’s the only option given), which also means that the current grantee does not have complete hold nor control over the land either.
A special warranty deed is typically used by certain kinds of organizations and business entities, only needing hold over the property for as long as they need to operate within it. Any existing defects to the land or property that may have occurred prior to the ownership of the current grantee are not likely to receive coverage or protection under the deed, only offering a guarantee to defects that may have been incurred by the current grantor.
The third and final type of deed agreement is that of the quitclaim deed (also referred to as a “quitclaim deed”), used by the current holder of the property to state giving up interest and ownership. When it comes to this kind of a deed agreement, it has the lowest level of backing in ownership protection, as it offers little to no coverage over any of the six listed covenants. The nature of this contract requires it to be ideally used between parties that already have a good degree of pre-established trust with one another.
For a quitclaim deed, it’s mostly used as an exchange of property between trusted family members or friends/colleagues. This form of deed is also used when it comes to relinquishing ownership of property between a divorcing couple. It can even be used in making a transfer of property over to a business or other type of corporate entity. Sometimes, the current grantor might not even have the property officially under their name, thereby required to sign a quitclaim deed to relinquish it. In general, a quitclaim deed involves no monetary requirement to fulfill on the grantee’s part.
