Florida Quitclaim Deed: How to Fill Out & Record One

Step 1: Find the Right County

Record the deed in the county where the land lies, not where either party happens to live. In most counties, the Clerk of the Circuit Court keeps the official records. A few counties use a comptroller or a separate records office. State law sets the basic fee, while the county office sets its address, ways to pay, return-by-mail process, and e-recording options.

Step 2: Add the Preparer Block and Leave Room for the Clerk

Florida law requires the name and “post-office address”—in plain terms, a mailing address—of the person who prepared the deed or oversaw the work. This is often shown in a “Prepared by” block near the top of the first page. If you prepare the deed yourself, use your own name and mailing address.

Leave the clerk room to stamp it: a 3-inch by 3-inch blank square in the top right corner of the first page, and a 1-inch by 3-inch strip in the top right of every page after that. The second one is easy to forget on a deed that runs to two or three pages.

Step 3: Fill In the Grantor's Information

The grantor is the person whose interest the deed is meant to transfer. Use the full legal name shown on the current deed. Florida law does not require the grantor's marital status on the deed, but adding it can make the homestead and ownership facts clear.

Put each grantor's mailing address on the deed. After signing, the grantor's name must also be printed, typed, or stamped right beneath the signature. These are state filing rules, separate from the address the county uses to return the recorded deed.

Step 4: Fill In the Grantee's Information

The grantee is the person or legal entity receiving the interest. Use the grantee's correct legal name and mailing address on the face of the deed. If land is going into a trust, the grantee is usually named as the trustee in that role, not just by the trust's informal name. The grantee usually does not sign merely because they receive the land.

Step 5: Add the Legal Description

Florida's transfer sentence says that the grantor “does hereby remise, release, and quitclaim” to the grantee all the “right, title, interest, claim, and demand” the grantor has in the land. That sentence follows the parties' names, mailing addresses, and the amount of consideration. The legal description comes next.

Use the current recorded deed as your source, and copy its full legal description. A street address does not replace it, whatever kind of property you are transferring. For a platted parcel, the description often gives the lot, block, and plat book and page. Unplatted land may use metes and bounds. Florida's published wording also has a blank for the parcel ID number and says to enter it if available. Leaving out the blank or number does not void the transfer or bar recording, and a parcel number never replaces the legal description.

Step 6: Choose the Ownership Wording Carefully

If you are transferring the property to more than one person, decide how they will own it together. With no survivorship wording, Florida usually treats the grantees as tenants in common. Each owner's share goes through that owner's estate instead of passing to the other owner. If you want the survivor to receive the other share, the deed needs the right survivorship wording.

Married couples have another choice. A deed to both spouses is presumed to create a tenancy by the entirety unless it shows a different intent. That form includes survivorship, and a creditor of only one spouse usually cannot reach the property. If the marriage ends, Florida law changes the ownership to a tenancy in common.

Step 7: Check Whether Your Spouse Has to Sign

If the property is your Florida homestead and you are married, your spouse generally must join in the deed—even if you are the only person named on the current deed and no money changes hands. A spouse who must join signs with the same two witnesses and acknowledgment.

There is a narrow exception for deeds between spouses. One spouse may deed homestead property directly to the other spouse, or from that spouse's sole name to both spouses as tenants by the entirety, without the grantee spouse signing the deed.

The joinder rule applies to your homestead, not automatically to a rental, vacant investment land, or a business site. A homestead deed already signed without a required spouse may have a title defect; editing the recorded deed is not a way to fix it.

Step 8: Sign With Two Witnesses and a Notary

Each grantor—and a spouse who joins in a homestead deed—must sign in the presence of two subscribing witnesses. To record it, the signing must also be acknowledged or proved before an authorized officer. Most people use a notary.

The witnesses and notary have different jobs. The witnesses sign after seeing the grantor sign. The notary checks the signer's identity and completes the acknowledgment. Print or type each witness's name right beneath the signature, add that witness's mailing address, and put the notary's printed name right beneath the notary's signature.

Florida also allows an electronic deed to be signed through a compliant online-notary process. The online notary must be in Florida, and remote witnesses join the live video session and sign electronically. This formal process is different from signing a paper deed while witnesses watch an ordinary video call. Our Remote Online Notarization by State and Florida witness requirements pages explain the details.

Step 9: Work Out the Documentary Stamp Tax

Florida taxes the deed itself. The rate is 70 cents for each $100 of consideration, or part of $100, and the tax is due at recording. All parties are liable for it, no matter who they agreed would pay.

Consideration is more than cash. It includes money paid or promised, a debt that is cleared, and usually any mortgage or other lien on the land, whether or not the grantee takes on the debt. A gift of mortgaged land can therefore produce a tax bill. The cost section below shows the math and the main exemptions.

Step 10: Record the Deed

Submit the signed, witnessed, and acknowledged deed to the recording office for the county where the land lies. Include the recording fee and any deed tax due. A paper deed can usually be filed in person or by mail; e-recording uses a service the county accepts. Check the office's rules for payment and return of the recorded deed.

Record promptly. Until the deed is recorded, it may not protect the grantee against the grantor's creditors or a later purchaser who pays value without notice of the deed. Recording creates a public record and fixes the filing date and time.

Receiving a quitclaim deed does not, by itself, put the grantee on notice of title problems. It does not fix those problems either, and a person who received the property as a gift may not have every protection given to a buyer who paid value.

Where do I record a Florida quitclaim deed?

Record it in the county where the property is located, usually with the Clerk of the Circuit Court's official-records office. That may not be the county where either party lives. The office collects the recording fee and any deed tax when the deed is recorded. Filing options differ by county; many accept deeds in person, by mail, or through an approved e-recording service.

Can I find the current Florida deed online?

Often. Search the county's official records, usually by the current owner's name, and open or order the recorded deed image. Online coverage and copy charges vary, especially for older records. Copy the legal description from the recorded deed itself rather than from a property-appraiser summary or tax page.

Does a Florida quitclaim deed need witnesses?

Yes. The grantor signs in the presence of two subscribing witnesses, and a notary usually acknowledges the deed for recording. Print each witness's name and mailing address beneath that witness's signature. For an electronic deed completed through Florida's online-notary process, the witnesses may appear in the same live video session and sign online. An ordinary video call does not turn a paper signing into remote witnessing.

Do I need my spouse's signature on the deed?

Usually, yes, if the property is your Florida homestead. Your spouse generally must join even if only your name is on the current deed and no money changes hands. The exception is a deed from one spouse to the other spouse, or from one spouse's sole name to both spouses as tenants by the entirety. The rule does not apply to every parcel a married person owns.

Will I owe documentary stamp tax on a gift to a family member?

Often, yes. With no debt and only a nominal amount on the deed, the tax is 70 cents. If a mortgage remains, its balance usually counts even when the new owner does not take on the loan; a $200,000 balance would produce $1,400 in tax outside Miami-Dade County. Specific exemptions may apply to a mortgaged homestead transfer between spouses or to a transfer connected with divorce. A transfer to a revocable trust also follows its own beneficial-ownership rule.

Where do I get a Florida quitclaim deed form?

Florida's prescribed quitclaim wording took effect July 1, 2023. You must still add the legal description and Florida's signing and filing details: two witness lines, each witness's printed name and mailing address, a preparer block, the grantee's address, and space for the clerk. The witness-address rule took effect January 1, 2024. If you would rather start from something built for this state, our Quitclaim Deed Help page explains the available form and deed-preparation options.

Can I get a Florida quitclaim deed notarized online?

Yes, if the deed is signed online through a compliant Florida remote-online-notarization process. The online notary must be physically in Florida. Remote witnesses may join the live video session and sign online after the required ID checks; each must hear the grantor acknowledge signing and confirm being a U.S. resident who is physically within the United States or a U.S. territory. This is a formal RON transaction, not simply a paper deed shown over a video call.

How much does it cost to record a Florida quitclaim deed?

The state-set recording charge is $10 for the first page and $8.50 for each extra page, plus $1 for each indexed name over four. Deed tax is separate and turns on the value given, including mortgage debt when it counts.