A Georgia deed has to be attested by two people: an officer, which in practice means a notary public, and one other witness. Both watch the grantor sign and both sign the deed. A deed with a notary and nobody else is not recordable, and neither is a deed with two ordinary witnesses and no officer.
Since 2025 the notary's job is bigger than it was. The notary has to check the grantor's photo ID, and when the deed is going to be recorded by the owner rather than by an attorney or title company, the notary keeps a journal entry of the signing. Bring identification.
What the Statute Says
Georgia's rule is one sentence. A deed to lands "shall be an original document, in writing, signed by the maker, attested by an officer as provided in Code Section 44-2-15, and attested by one other witness." It then has to be delivered to the person receiving it. That sentence was last amended in 2015, and it applies to a quitclaim deed the same as to any other.
To attest is to witness the signing and sign to say so. It is not the same as an acknowledgment, where a signer appears before a notary later and declares that the signature is theirs. Georgia asks for attestation, which means the officer and the other witness both have to be present at the moment the grantor signs.
The clerk of superior court works from that sentence when a deed comes in. A deed that shows a notary's signature and seal and no second witness has met half the requirement, and it comes back.
Who Counts as the Officer
A notary public is the officer this page assumes, and Georgia's notary law says in terms that a notary has authority to witness or attest the signing of deeds. But the code section the deed statute points to lists others who will do: a judge of a court of record, including a municipal court judge; a magistrate; and the clerk or deputy clerk of a superior court or a city court.
There is a geographic limit worth knowing about. A notary public or a judge of a court of record can attest a deed anywhere in Georgia. The other officers can only attest in the county where they hold office. So if you are signing away from home, a notary is the safe choice.
One officer is enough. The statute does not ask for a notary and a judge, only for one officer and one other witness.
The Other Witness
The second attestation comes from "one other witness", and the statute says nothing about who that has to be. No office, no commission, no relationship to the parties is required or forbidden. What the witness does is watch the grantor sign and then sign the deed as a witness.
Two practical points follow from the statute's silence. The witness cannot be the officer, because the statute counts them separately. And although nothing bars a party to the deed from witnessing it, a witness with no stake in the transfer leaves nothing for anyone to argue about later, so use one.
Print each witness's name beneath the signature. Georgia's deed statute does not require it the way some states' recording statutes do, but a signature nobody can read identifies nobody, and the point of a witness is to be identifiable.
What the Notary Has to Do Since 2025
A 2024 law aimed at deed fraud rewrote the section on a notary's duties, and the changes took effect on January 1, 2025. Three of them touch the signing of a quitclaim deed.
- Identification. In every notarial act, the notary has to confirm the signer's identity from personal knowledge or from satisfactory evidence, which the statute says includes a government-issued photo ID such as a valid driver's license, a state identification card, or a military identification card.
- Impartiality. A notary is disqualified from attesting a document they have signed, or a document or transaction to which they are a party. The grantee cannot be the notary, and neither can the grantor.
- The journal. Where the person asking for the notarization is a self-filer, meaning a party to the deed who is not a Georgia attorney, title agent, real estate licensee, bank, lender, servicer, surveyor or public official, the notary has to keep a written or electronic journal entry for the act. The entry records the self-filer's name, address and telephone number; the date, time and place; the type of photo ID presented and its identifying number, unless the notary knew the person; the self-filer's signature; and the type of document.
None of this changes the deed. It changes the appointment: bring photo ID, expect to sign the notary's journal, and expect the notary to decline if they are named anywhere in the document.
Signing Away From Georgia, or Online
Georgia has not enacted remote online notarization. Bills to allow it were before the 2026 General Assembly and had not become law when this page was checked, so for now a Georgia deed cannot be attested over video: the officer and the other witness are in the room. Our Remote Online Notarization by State page tracks where that stands.
A deed signed in another state is attested under a separate section of Georgia's code, and this page does not cover it. If the grantor cannot sign in Georgia, ask a Georgia attorney or the clerk's office what they will accept before the signing rather than after.
What This Means for Your Georgia Quitclaim Deed
- Book a notary and bring one other adult, ideally someone with no interest in the property.
- Bring a valid government photo ID. The notary has to see it, and for a self-filed deed will record it in a journal you sign.
- Sign in front of both of them at the same time. Do not sign in advance.
- Make sure the deed has a signature line for the witness as well as the notary block, and that both are completed before the deed goes for recording.
Next step: the deed cannot be recorded until the PT-61 has been filed, and since 2025 an owner recording their own deed does it through the Clerks' Authority eFile portal. Our Georgia quitclaim deed page has the full sequence.
Georgia Deed Witnesses — Common Questions
How many witnesses does a Georgia quitclaim deed need?
Two, and they are not interchangeable. The statute says a deed to land must be attested by an officer, which in practice is a notary public, and attested by one other witness. Both have to be there when the grantor signs and both sign the deed. A deed with a notary and nobody else has one attestation; so does a deed with two ordinary witnesses and no officer. Neither is what the clerk is required to see.
Can the notary be one of the two witnesses in Georgia?
Yes, and that is the normal arrangement. Georgia's notary law gives notaries the authority to witness or attest the signing of deeds, and the conveyancing statute names the notary among the officers whose attestation the deed needs. The notary is the official witness. What the notary cannot be is both witnesses: the statute asks for one officer and one other person, so a second individual has to sign as well.
Does a Georgia deed have to be notarized?
It has to be attested by an officer, and a notary public is one of the officers the code lists. A judge of a court of record, a magistrate, or the clerk or deputy clerk of a superior court or city court can attest instead, though most of those can only do it in the county where they hold office, while a notary can attest anywhere in Georgia. What the officer does is witness the signing at the time it happens, not certify an acknowledgment afterwards, which is why the officer has to be in the room.
What identification do I need to bring to the notary?
A government-issued photo ID. Since January 1, 2025, a Georgia notary has to confirm the identity of the person signing either from personal knowledge or from satisfactory evidence, which the statute says includes a valid driver's license, a state identification card, or a military identification card. If you are recording the deed yourself rather than through an attorney or title company, the notary also has to make a journal entry for the notarization, recording your name, address and phone number, the date, time and place, the type of ID you showed, the kind of document, and your signature.
Can I sign a Georgia deed online with a remote notary?
Not under Georgia law as it stands. Georgia has not enacted remote online notarization; bills to allow it were before the 2026 General Assembly but had not become law when this page was checked. Until that changes, the officer and the other witness have to be physically present when the grantor signs. Our Remote Online Notarization by State page tracks where it stands.
Official Sources
Georgia's laws are collected in the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, and a citation such as O.C.G.A. § 44-5-30 is an address: the numbers are the title, the chapter and the section. You do not need any of them to follow this page.
The code sections below are listed by number rather than linked, and that is deliberate. Georgia does not publish its own code at a web address that stays put — the state's free access point hands each visitor a fresh address that stops working afterwards — so the numbers are given plain, for you or an attorney to look up. The front door does stay put: the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, published for the state by LexisNexis, opens in a new tab, and typing a section number into its search box brings up the wording. The Legislature's own copy of the 2024 Act is linked as well, because its address is fixed.
- O.C.G.A. § 44-5-30 — what a Georgia deed has to be: an original document, in writing, signed by the maker, attested by an officer, and attested by one other witness.
- O.C.G.A. § 44-2-15 — who counts as that officer, and the rule that most of them can only attest in the county where they hold office.
- O.C.G.A. § 45-17-8 — a notary's powers and duties: the authority to attest deeds, the identification requirement, the disqualification of a notary who is a signer or party, and the journal for self-filers.
- O.C.G.A. § 44-2-2 — the definition of a self-filer, which decides whether the notary's journal entry is required.
- House Bill 1292 (2024), as passed — the Act that added the identification, impartiality and journal rules to the notary statute, effective January 1, 2025, on the Legislature's website.
Checked against Georgia's code and House Bill 1292 as passed on September 3, 2026.