To fill out a quitclaim deed to add your spouse, you list yourself as the grantor, list both you and your spouse as the grantees with the vesting language you’ve chosen, copy the property’s legal description exactly from your current deed, state a nominal consideration, then sign before a notary and record the deed with the county where the property sits. The form itself is short. The parts that go wrong are the legal description, the vesting choice, and the recorder’s formatting rules, and each one is fixable if you slow down before you print.
Gather Your Information First
Pull these together before you open the form. Starting without them is how deeds get rejected or, worse, recorded with defects that surface years later during a sale.
- Full legal names for you and your spouse, matching government-issued ID exactly. A middle name that appears on a driver’s license but not on the deed can create problems at a later refinance or sale.
- The property’s legal description. This is not the street address. It is the formal description by lot, block, and subdivision, or by metes and bounds, and you’ll find it on your current recorded deed, your title insurance policy, or your most recent property tax statement.
- The Assessor’s Parcel Number, which links the property to the county’s tax records. It appears on your property tax bill and on the county assessor’s website.
- The correct form for your county. Quitclaim deed forms are available from the County Recorder, the Clerk of Court, or legal document services, and each county has its own formatting rules.
If you can’t find your current deed, most counties maintain an online land records portal where you can look up the recorded document, and the recorder’s office will issue a certified copy for a fee that varies by county.
Decide How You and Your Spouse Will Hold Title
This is the decision most people rush, and it has bigger consequences than anything else on the form. Once you add your spouse, the deed has to state how the two of you hold title together. Leave the vesting language off and most states default the two of you to a tenancy in common, with no automatic survivorship.
Joint Tenancy With Right of Survivorship
Both spouses own equal, undivided shares, and when one dies the survivor automatically owns the whole property without probate. This is available in every state and is the common choice for married couples outside community property states. Either spouse can sever the joint tenancy by transferring their share, which converts the ownership to a tenancy in common.
Tenancy by the Entirety
This form is available only to married couples and only in roughly half the states. It works like joint tenancy with survivorship rights and adds a layer of creditor protection: in most states that recognize it, a creditor of only one spouse generally cannot force a sale of the property to satisfy that spouse’s individual debt. Neither spouse can unilaterally transfer or encumber their interest. If your state recognizes it and creditor exposure is a concern, this is usually the stronger choice.
Community Property With Right of Survivorship
If you live in Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, or Wisconsin, you may be able to hold title as community property with right of survivorship. It combines automatic survivorship with a tax advantage on the back end: when one spouse dies, the entire property, not just the deceased spouse’s half, receives a stepped-up basis equal to fair market value at the date of death.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 1014 – Basis of Property Acquired From a Decedent Not every community property state offers this vesting form, so confirm the option before selecting it.
Complete the Deed Fields
Grantor and Grantee
The grantor is the person giving up or sharing the interest. The grantee is the person receiving it. Because you’re adding your spouse, you (the current sole owner) are the grantor, and both you and your spouse together are the grantees. Some forms have only a single grantee line; write both names on that line along with the vesting language, for example “as joint tenants with right of survivorship.” Match your name on the grantor line to how it appears on your existing recorded deed, exactly, including any suffix.
Consideration
The consideration line states what the grantee paid. Between spouses there is no real purchase price, so most people write a nominal amount such as “$1.00 and other valuable consideration” or “$10.00 and love and affection.” The specific wording does not affect the legal validity of the transfer, but it can matter for transfer tax purposes.
Legal Description and Parcel Number
Copy the legal description from your existing deed or title policy word for word. This is where errors do the most damage. A misplaced comma or a wrong lot number creates a title defect that can take a corrective deed or even a quiet title action to fix. If the description is too long for the space, attach a separate page labeled “Exhibit A” with the full description and reference it in the body of the deed (“See Exhibit A attached hereto and incorporated by reference”). Enter the Assessor’s Parcel Number in its own field; some jurisdictions require it on the face of the deed as a condition of recording.
Sign, Notarize, and (Sometimes) Witness
Only the grantor signs a quitclaim deed. Your spouse, as the grantee, does not need to sign, though some state forms include a grantee signature line to acknowledge the vesting.
You must sign in front of a notary public. The notary will check a government-issued photo ID, watch you sign, and apply their seal. Without notarization, the recorder will not accept the deed. Notary fees are set by state law and typically run between $2 and $25 per signature.
A handful of states, including Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, also require one or two witnesses to sign alongside the notary acknowledgment. Check the county recorder’s requirements before you sit down with the notary so you don’t have to repeat the appointment.
Record the Deed With the County
A signed and notarized deed is legally valid between you and your spouse the moment it’s delivered, but your spouse’s interest is not protected against third parties until the deed is recorded. Take or mail the original deed to the County Recorder or Clerk of Court in the county where the property is located. Many counties now accept electronic recording.
Recording fees vary widely, roughly $10 to $90 depending on the county, with most charging a base fee for the first page and a smaller per-page fee after that. The recorder will stamp the deed with the filing date, time, and instrument number, then mail the original back to the address in the “Return To” section at the top of the first page.
Formatting rules cause a lot of first-time rejections. Common requirements include two to three inches of blank space at the top of the first page for the recorder’s stamp, half-inch side margins, and the return address in the upper left corner. A deed that misses these gets sent back unfiled, so check your county’s recording guidelines before you print.
The Deed Does Not Change Who Owes the Mortgage
If there’s a mortgage on the property, adding your spouse to the deed will not trigger the due-on-sale clause. Federal law prohibits lenders from accelerating a mortgage when a spouse becomes an owner, as long as the property is a residence with fewer than five units.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 12 USC 1701j-3 – Preemption of Due-on-Sale Prohibitions
The part people miss: adding your spouse to the deed gives them an ownership interest, but it does not make them responsible for the loan. The deed controls who owns the property; the mortgage note controls who owes the debt. A quitclaim deed changes only the first. Your lender can still pursue you alone for missed payments, and the only way to put your spouse on the loan is to refinance into both names.
Tax Consequences Worth Knowing Before You Record
Interspousal transfers are sheltered from most taxes that normally apply when property changes hands, with one long-term consequence people rarely think about until it costs them.
Gift and Income Tax
Transferring a property interest to a U.S. citizen spouse triggers no federal gift tax, whatever the property’s value, because of the unlimited marital deduction.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 2523 – Gift to Spouse If your spouse is not a U.S. citizen, the annual exclusion for gifts to a noncitizen spouse is $194,000 for 2026, which covers most residential property interests.4Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026 The transfer also generates no income tax event, because no gain or loss is recognized on a transfer of property between spouses, and the recipient takes the transferor’s adjusted basis.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 1041 – Transfers of Property Between Spouses or Incident to Divorce
Property Tax and Transfer Tax
Adding a spouse to your deed generally does not trigger a property tax reassessment, because interspousal transfers are usually excluded from the definition of a “change in ownership.” Your assessor may still ask for documentation confirming the transfer was between spouses. Many states and counties also impose a documentary transfer tax when real property changes hands, and most exempt interspousal transfers and transfers for no consideration. Look for a line or checkbox near the top of the deed where you claim the exemption; some counties require a separate exemption form filed alongside.
The Basis Trade-Off That Catches Families Later
When you transfer a property interest to your spouse by quitclaim deed, your spouse inherits your original cost basis in that share.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 1015 – Basis of Property Acquired by Gifts and Transfers in Trust If your spouse instead inherited the property when you die, it would receive a stepped-up basis equal to fair market value at the date of death.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 1014 – Basis of Property Acquired From a Decedent The $250,000/$500,000 home sale exclusion for a primary residence softens the difference, but on a high-appreciation home or one you may convert to a rental, the lost step-up can mean a five- or six-figure tax bill down the road. In community property states, community property receives a full step-up in basis on both halves when one spouse dies, which is one reason community property with right of survivorship is often the better vesting choice there than joint tenancy.
Mistakes That Cause Rejections or Title Problems
- Using the street address instead of the legal description. A street address does not legally identify a parcel. Copy the full legal description from your existing deed or title policy.
- Misspelling a name or dropping a suffix. If your current deed says “James Robert Smith III” and you write “James R. Smith,” you’ve created a gap in the chain of title. Match the grantor name to your existing deed exactly, and match the grantees to their current IDs.
- Omitting the vesting language. Without it, most states default to a tenancy in common with no survivorship. Spell out “as joint tenants with right of survivorship” or whichever form you chose.
- Wrong margins or missing return address. Recorders need blank space at the top of the first page for their stamp, typically two and a half to three inches, and the return address must be clearly printed in the designated area.
- Forgetting to record. An unrecorded deed is valid between you and your spouse but does not protect the new owner’s interest against creditors, competing claims, or clerical errors.
For a property with significant equity or a complicated ownership history, spending a few hundred dollars on a real estate attorney to review the deed before you record it is cheap insurance against problems that cost thousands to fix.