Kentucky Quitclaim Deed Instructions

Step 1: Find the Right County Clerk

A Kentucky deed is recorded with the county clerk in the county where the property is located, which is not necessarily the county you live in. Where a parcel crosses a county line, the statute sends the deed to the county holding the greater part of it. Kentucky has 120 counties and 120 clerks.

Kentucky has no state directory of the clerks themselves, but the Department for Local Government keeps a list of all 120 county websites, and each county's site gives its clerk's address, hours and phone number. Start there.

Step 2: Write the Preparer Statement and the Addresses the Clerk Looks For

Kentucky's clerks are told by statute not to record a deed unless it carries a printed, typed or stamped statement of the name and address of the person who prepared it, signed by that person. A stamped or printed facsimile of the signature is allowed. Put it at the end of the deed, before any attachment. Whoever fills the deed in is the preparer, and that can be you.

Two addresses go on the deed as well. The grantee's mailing address is required by one statute, and the in-care-of address to which the property tax bill for the year of the transfer may be sent is required by another. They can be the same address, but the deed says each in its own words. The statute also asks for the mailing address of the grantor.

Step 3: Fill In the Grantor's Information

The grantor is the person giving up whatever interest they hold. Use the full legal name exactly as it appears on the deed the grantor received; the statute defines a full name for an individual as the surname with a first name or initial and any middle names or initials, and for a company as its real name on file with the Secretary of State. State the grantor's mailing address and whether the grantor is married. If the grantor is married, the spouse signs too, for the reasons in Step 7, and the deed should name the spouse as a grantor as well.

Step 4: Fill In the Grantee's Information

The grantee is the person receiving the interest. Give the full legal name, in the same form the statute describes, and the mailing address. Where a company, a trust or an estate receives the property, name it as it is legally named. The grantee will also sign the consideration certificate in Step 8, so the grantee signs this deed too.

Step 5: Name the Source of the Grantor's Title

Kentucky's recording statute tells the clerk not to admit a deed to record unless it plainly specifies and refers to the immediate source from which the grantor derived title. If the grantor got the property by a recorded deed, the new deed refers to that deed and gives the office, the deed book and page, and the date it was recorded. If the grantor got it in any other way, the deed states clearly and accurately how and from whom. Where the title came from two or more sources, the deed names each and says which part came from which.

If the grantor inherited the property from someone who died without a will, one more document has to be on record before the deed can be: an affidavit of descent, sworn by the grantor, an heir, or two Kentucky residents who know the facts, giving the name of the person who died, the date of death, whether they were married and to whom, the fact that there was no will, and the names, ages and addresses of the heirs and what each inherited. The clerk records the affidavit in the deed books, indexed as though it were a deed from the deceased to the heirs, and the fee is the same as for a deed.

Step 6: Add the Legal Description and Decide How Co-Owners Will Hold Title

Copy the legal description word for word from the current deed. A street address is not a legal description. Where the county clerk's index requires a parcel identification number on the deed, add it; the statute says a clerk who requires one has to provide a free computer terminal for finding it.

If two or more people will own the property, say how. Kentucky presumes against survivorship. Real estate conveyed to a husband and wife makes them tenants in common, each with a separate share, unless a right by survivorship is expressly provided for. For anyone else, a joint tenant's share passes to that tenant's heirs unless it manifestly appears from the instrument that the survivors were meant to take it. So a couple, or anyone, who want the survivor to own the whole property write the words out: "as joint tenants with right of survivorship, and not as tenants in common". Silence gives them separate shares.

Step 7: Have the Grantor's Spouse Sign

If the grantor is married, the spouse signs the deed, whatever names are on the title, to release dower or curtesy. Kentucky kept those old rights and made them the same for husbands and wives. After the death of a married person, the survivor has an estate for life in one-third of any real estate the other spouse owned in fee simple during the marriage but not at death, unless the survivor's right was barred, forfeited or relinquished. Real estate the grantor deeded away alone during the marriage is exactly that: owned during the marriage, not at death. The spouse's signature on the deed is the relinquishment.

A 2026 amendment added a second reach. Property the deceased spouse transferred less than two years before death is now counted as surplus real estate for the surviving spouse's claim, and the survivor may sue whoever received it to satisfy that claim. An absolute divorce bars the claim entirely, so a former spouse does not sign.

Step 8: Complete the Consideration Certificate

This is the document Kentucky adds to every deed, and the clerk cannot record a deed without it. The statute calls it a sworn, notarized certificate signed by the grantor and the grantee, or their agents, or the parent or guardian of a party under eighteen. For a sale, it certifies that the consideration stated in the deed is the full consideration paid for the property. For a gift, or a transfer for nominal or no consideration, it states that the transfer is by gift and sets out the estimated fair cash value of the property. There is no third kind: "$1 and love and affection" calls for the gift version, with a value in it.

The certificate is written into the deed, above signature lines for both parties, with its own notary blocks, and both signers swear to it. The value it gives is what the clerk taxes on unless the deed is exempt, and a willfully false statement of consideration or value is a felony. Six kinds of deed are excused from the certificate and the tax address: utility easements, court transfers in a divorce, government rights-of-way, cemetery lots, deeds correcting an earlier deed between the same parties for the same property, and deeds to a local airport board. Our Kentucky consideration certificate page gives the wording for a sale and for a gift and goes through who signs.

Step 9: Sign the Deed Before a Notary

The grantor, and the grantor's spouse where Step 7 applies, sign the deed and acknowledge it before a notary public or the county clerk. The statute also admits a deed proved by two subscribing witnesses, but a notary is the route to use, because the certificate in Step 8 has to be notarized anyway and the grantee is signing that. Until the deed is acknowledged and lodged for record it is not valid against a buyer for value without notice or against creditors.

Kentucky rewrote its notary law on the first day of 2020. The certificate the notary completes must be signed and dated, identify the county and state, give the notary's name and title, and show the notary's commission number and its expiration date. The Secretary of State publishes short forms that carry all of that, with a space to say how the notarization was done.

Kentucky allows online notarization. A Kentucky notary who has registered with the Secretary of State as an online notary, and who is physically in Kentucky, can take your acknowledgment over live audio-video while you are anywhere in the United States, or abroad if the deed concerns property here. The notary identifies you by personal knowledge or by a government identification card checked by credential analysis and identity proofing, records the whole session, and keeps the recording for at least ten years; the certificate says you appeared by communication technology. Our Remote Online Notarization by State page explains how a session runs.

Step 10: Pay the Transfer Tax, or Fit the Exemption, and Record the Deed

Take or mail the deed to the county clerk with the transfer tax and the recording fee. Kentucky's tax is 50 cents for each $500 of value, and the statute imposes it on the grantor. Value is the full price, including any lien the grantee takes subject to, or for a gift the property's open-market value, which is why the consideration certificate asks for it. The clerk computes the tax from the value in the deed, collects it before accepting the deed, and certifies the payment on the deed; a deed is not lodged for record until the tax is paid.

The statute lists the transfers that owe no tax, and the ones a family quitclaim deed meets are a transfer between husband and wife, or between former spouses as part of a divorce; a transfer between parent and child or grandparent and grandchild with only nominal consideration; a deed correcting a recorded deed; a deed only securing or releasing a debt; and certain transfers to and from a trust. The statute sets no form of words for claiming an exemption, and the clerk decides from the deed, so say plainly in the deed which exemption applies. A gift to a brother or a niece is not exempt and is taxed on the fair cash value in the certificate.

The clerk records and indexes the deed and mails it back to the address you gave. From the time it is lodged for record it is notice to everyone, and until then it is not valid against a later buyer without notice, so there is no reason to wait.

Where do I record a Kentucky quitclaim deed?

With the county clerk in the county where the property is located, or where the greater part of it lies if it crosses a county line. Kentucky has 120 county clerks, and the Department for Local Government's county list links every county's website, where the clerk's address, hours and phone number are found. You bring or mail the deed with the transfer tax, unless the deed is exempt, and the recording fee.

What is a Kentucky consideration certificate?

A sworn statement, written into the deed and notarized, signed by both the grantor and the grantee or their agents. For a sale it certifies that the consideration in the deed is the full price paid. For a gift, or a transfer for nominal or no consideration, it states that the transfer is a gift and gives the property's estimated fair cash value. The county clerk cannot record a deed without it, except for six kinds of deed the statute names, and a willfully false statement in it is a felony.

Does my spouse have to sign a Kentucky quitclaim deed?

Yes, if you are married, whatever names are on the title. Kentucky gives a surviving spouse a life estate in one-third of any real estate the other spouse owned during the marriage but not at death, unless that right was relinquished, and since 2026 it also counts property given away in the two years before death. Real estate you deed away alone is owned during the marriage and not at death, so your spouse's signature on the deed is how the right is released. A divorce ends the right, so a former spouse does not sign.

Will I owe transfer tax if I give property to a family member?

It depends on the relative. Kentucky's tax is 50 cents per $500 of the property's fair cash value on a gift, and the statute exempts a transfer between husband and wife, between former spouses in a divorce, and between parent and child or grandparent and grandchild for nominal consideration. It does not exempt a gift between siblings, or to a niece, nephew, aunt or uncle; those are taxed on the value stated in the consideration certificate. The tax falls on the grantor, and the clerk collects it before recording.

Can I get a Kentucky deed notarized online?

Yes. A Kentucky notary who has registered with the Secretary of State as an online notary can take your acknowledgment over live audio-video while the notary is in Kentucky and you are anywhere in the United States, or outside it if the deed concerns property in the United States. The notary confirms your identity by personal knowledge or by a government identification card checked by credential analysis and identity proofing, records the session, keeps the recording for at least ten years, and notes on the certificate that you appeared by communication technology.

Where do I get a Kentucky quitclaim deed form?

Kentucky sets no statutory form of words for a quitclaim deed, and the deed's operative sentence is the easy part. What a form written for no particular state will not have is the sworn consideration certificate with signature and notary lines for both parties, the source-of-title paragraph with book and page, the in-care-of address for the tax bill, the signed preparer statement, or a signature line for the grantor's spouse. If you would rather start from something built for this state, our Quitclaim Deed Help page lists prepared forms and deed preparation services.