Nevada Quitclaim Deed Instructions

Step 1: Find the County Recorder for the County Where the Land Is Located

A Nevada deed is recorded with the county recorder for the county where the land is located, which need not be the county you live in. Nevada has sixteen counties and Carson City, each with its own recorder, and the Department of Taxation publishes a one-page map and directory of every county recorder with each office's address, telephone number, and email. Each recorder's own site says whether it takes documents by mail, at the counter, or through electronic recording.

Recording is what protects the grantee. A deed is valid between the parties without being recorded, but it gives notice to third parties only once it is recorded. From the moment it is filed, everyone who later buys or lends against the property is treated as knowing what it says. Until then, an unrecorded deed is void against a later buyer who paid value in good faith and recorded first. So the deed protects the grantee only once it is on the recorder's books.

Step 2: Set Up the First Page So the Recorder Will Accept It

Two statutes shape a Nevada deed. The recorder's format statute asks for white 20-pound letter-size paper, printed on one side, with one-inch margins at the left, right, and bottom of every page. The first page keeps a blank space three inches square at its upper right corner for the recording stamp, and every later page keeps a one-inch top margin. No pages bound together, nothing attached, no highlighting, and no stamp or seal over text or a signature. Black ink, type no smaller than 10-point Times New Roman, and no more than nine lines of text to the vertical inch. A recorder may accept a document that misses these, but is not required to.

The second statute is the one that stops a deed at the counter. The recorder may not record a conveyance unless it carries the mailing address of the grantee and the assessor's parcel number at the top left corner of the first page, in the format the county assessor uses. And the recorder may not record any deed, a quitclaim deed named among them, unless it states the name and address of the person to whom the property tax statement should be mailed. Every signer's name is typed or printed beneath the signature; a deed without that is accepted only with an affidavit spelling the names.

Step 3: Fill In the Grantor

The grantor is the party giving up whatever interest they hold: a person, a married couple, a trustee, or a company. Give the full legal name exactly as it appears on the deed the grantor received, because the recorder indexes by name and a title examiner has to match the two. Where the grantor is a trust, the trustee signs as trustee; where it is a company, an officer signs with their title. A married grantor's spouse may need to sign too, and Step 7 explains when.

The grantor's name and address go on the Declaration of Value as well, in the seller block, which the form marks as required. Both parties sign the declaration under penalty of perjury, and both are liable for the tax, so the grantor's details there are not a formality.

Step 4: Fill In the Grantee, and the Address for the Tax Statement

Name the grantee, the party taking the interest, by the full legal name that should appear on the next deed and on the tax bills. Give the grantee's mailing address on the deed itself, because the statute lets the recorder record nothing without it. Then add a separate line, "Mail tax statements to:", with a name and address. It may be the grantee's own, or a lender's, or a family member's, but it must be there, on every deed, or the recorder may not record.

A trust takes title through its trustee, so write "Jane Doe, Trustee of the Doe Family Trust"; a company takes it under the exact name on its Secretary of State filing. Two or more grantees need one more phrase saying how they hold title, and Step 6 explains why that phrase, in Nevada, has three choices rather than two.

Step 5: State the Consideration, and Work Out the Transfer Tax

Nevada's real property transfer tax falls on every deed that conveys real estate for a consideration or value above $100, and the buyer and seller are jointly liable for it. The statewide rate is $1.95 for each $500 of value or fraction of $500: 65 cents under one section and $1.30 under another. In a county of 700,000 people or more, which today means Clark County, the first section charges $1.25 instead of 65 cents, so the rate there is $2.55. A smaller county may add a few cents more by ordinance, and the Department of Taxation's transfer tax page lists $2.05 in Washoe and Churchill counties. The recorder computes the tax from the Declaration of Value and collects it before accepting the deed.

Value is the full price for a sale. For a gift, or a deed reciting nominal consideration such as "ten dollars and love and affection", value is the property's estimated fair market value. That is taken as the assessor's taxable value or the price paid within the last five years, whichever is higher. So a house with a taxable value of $400,000 given to a grandchild in a smaller county carries $1,560 in tax. The exemptions that matter for a family deed are few. A transfer between people related in the first degree is exempt, which means spouses, parents, and children, and their in-laws in that degree. So is a transfer between former spouses under a divorce decree, and a transfer to or from a trust without consideration, if a certificate of trust is presented. A transfer without consideration from one joint tenant or tenant in common to the others is exempt, as is a deed that only corrects the record of who really owns the property, and a transfer to a company the grantor owns outright. A gift to a grandchild, a sibling, or a friend is taxed on market value. The deed recites the consideration in the usual way; the number that matters goes on the declaration.

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

Copy the legal description word for word from the current deed. For a platted lot that is the lot number, the block, and the name of the subdivision with its map reference. For other land it is the government survey description or the metes and bounds. The statute says the parcel number is not a legal description, and a street address is not one either. Where the description is in metes and bounds, the deed must also give the name and mailing address of the person who prepared it. If the same description has been recorded before, the deed cites that earlier recording instead.

If two or more people will own the property, Nevada gives them three choices, and the deed has to pick one. A deed to two or more people creates a tenancy in common, separate shares that pass by will or inheritance, unless it expressly declares a joint tenancy, in which the survivor takes the whole. A married couple has a third choice, community property, and here Nevada adds a turn. A deed to a married couple as community property carries no survivorship unless it expressly says "as community property with right of survivorship". That form loses its survivorship if either spouse transfers an interest during the marriage. So write the choice out: "as joint tenants with right of survivorship", or "as community property with right of survivorship", or "as tenants in common". An owner may create any of these by a deed naming themselves and another person as grantees, in one step.

Step 7: If You Are Married, Decide Whether Your Spouse Signs

Nevada is a community property state. Everything either spouse acquires during the marriage is community property unless a written agreement or a court decree says otherwise, and each spouse holds a present, equal interest in it. Property owned before the marriage, or received during it by gift or inheritance, is that spouse's separate property. The rule for deeds follows from that. Neither spouse may sell, convey, or encumber community real property unless both join in signing the deed and both acknowledge it. Separate property may be conveyed by the owning spouse alone, without the other's consent.

The title deed does not settle which kind of property it is. A house bought during the marriage and titled in one spouse's name is still community property, and a deed of it signed by that spouse alone does not satisfy the statute. A house one spouse inherited is separate property even if the couple lives in it. Where the history is unclear, a Nevada attorney or title company can say which it is before anyone signs. A spouse may give the other a written power of attorney to convey community property, and a deed both spouses sign satisfies the rule in every case. The statute has no exception for a deed of community property from one spouse to the other, so have both spouses sign that deed too.

Step 8: Sign the Deed Before a Notary, in Person or Online

A deed must be acknowledged before it can be recorded, and Nevada requires no witnesses. The grantor appears before a notary public, or a judge, court clerk, or justice of the peace, and acknowledges signing the deed; the officer completes and signs the certificate of acknowledgment. Print your name beneath your signature. A Nevada notary may charge up to $15 for the first signature acknowledged and $7.50 for each additional one.

Nevada allows electronic notarization by audio-video connection. A Nevada notary who has registered with the Secretary of State as an electronic notary, completed the required course, and identified the technology to be used may take your acknowledgment over a live audio-video connection. You may be in Nevada, in another state, or, for property in the United States, abroad. The notary must be physically in Nevada during the session, records it, and keeps the recording for at least seven years. The notarial act is treated as performed in Nevada. The result is an electronic deed, and the notary may certify a paper copy of it for recording. An electronic notary may charge up to $25 per signature. Our Remote Online Notarization by State page compares the states.

Step 9: Fill In the Declaration of Value

Every deed presented for recording must be accompanied by a Declaration of Value on the form the Nevada Tax Commission prescribes, Form LGS-F049, and the recorder records it without charge. The form asks for the parcel numbers, the type of property, the total value or sales price, and the transfer tax due. It asks for the exemption claimed, with its section number and the reason, the percentage of the property being transferred, and the names and addresses of the seller, the buyer, and whoever requested the recording. It is signed under penalty of perjury by a party or a party's representative, and it carries two signature lines. A willfully false declaration is a misdemeanor. If the recorder later disallows an exemption, the extra tax is due within 30 days, after which a 10 percent penalty and interest at 1 percent a month run from the date of recording.

One box on the form does something the deed cannot. Item 2b lets the new owner claim the partial abatement of property tax, the cap that limits how much a home's tax bill can rise each year, by checking "owner occupied" for a primary residence. The statute requires the form to carry that section, and the county assessor uses it; if the owner does not sign the declaration, the assessor mails a separate form. A grantee who will live in the house should sign the declaration and check that box.

Step 10: Record the Deed, With the Fee and the Tax

Take or mail the signed and acknowledged deed, with the Declaration of Value, to the county recorder for the county where the land lies, with the fee and the tax. The statute sets $25 to record a document, of any length, and adds a $7 surcharge on every recording for legal services and guardianship programs. A recorder may add up to $5 for its technology fund, and the county commissioners may add up to $6 by ordinance for children's legal services, so the total runs from $32 to $43 depending on the county. The Declaration of Value is recorded free, and a certified copy of a recorded document costs $4 plus $1 a page. The recorder computes the transfer tax, collects it, and will not record until it is paid or the exemption accepted.

The recorder stamps the time of receipt in the upper right corner and, on request, stamps a copy you bring as proof of recording. Keep the recorded deed with the property's papers. The county assessor takes the new owner's name and the tax-statement address from the deed and the declaration, so the next tax bill goes where the deed said.

Where do I record a Nevada quitclaim deed?

With the county recorder for the county where the land is located, whether or not you live there. The Department of Taxation's one-page directory lists every county recorder with an address, telephone number, and email. A deed is valid between the parties without recording, but it gives notice to others only from the moment it is filed. An unrecorded deed is void against a later good-faith buyer who records first.

What has to be on the first page of a Nevada deed?

The assessor's parcel number in the top left corner, and a blank space three inches square in the top right corner for the recorder's stamp. Then the grantee's mailing address, and a line naming the person and address to which the property tax statement should be mailed. The recorder may not record a deed that lacks the parcel number, the grantee's address, or the tax-statement address. Every signer's name is printed beneath the signature.

Is a Nevada quitclaim deed to a family member exempt from the transfer tax?

Only within the first degree. A transfer between people related in the first degree of consanguinity or affinity, which covers spouses, a parent and a child, and a parent-in-law and a child-in-law, is exempt. A transfer between former spouses under a divorce decree is exempt too, and so is a transfer to or from a trust without consideration if a certificate of trust is presented. A gift to a grandchild, a sibling, a niece, or a friend is taxed on the property's estimated fair market value, at $1.95 for each $500, or more in the counties that add to it. Claim the exemption by section number on the Declaration of Value.

Does my spouse have to sign a Nevada quitclaim deed?

If the property is community property, yes: neither spouse may convey community real property unless both join in signing the deed and both acknowledge it. Property acquired during the marriage is community property unless a written agreement or decree says otherwise, whichever spouse's name is on the title. Property one spouse owned before the marriage, or received by gift or inheritance, is separate property and may be conveyed by that spouse alone. The statute has no exception for a deed of community property from one spouse to the other, so both spouses sign that one as well.

Does a deed to my spouse or my child give them survivorship rights in Nevada?

Only if the deed says so. A deed to two or more people creates a tenancy in common unless it expressly declares a joint tenancy. A deed to a married couple as community property carries no right of survivorship unless it expressly says "community property with right of survivorship". That survivorship ends if either spouse transfers an interest during the marriage. Write the form of ownership out in the deed, whichever you choose.

Can I get a Nevada quitclaim deed notarized online?

Yes. A Nevada notary registered with the Secretary of State as an electronic notary, who has completed the required course and identified the technology to be used, may take your acknowledgment over a live audio-video connection. You may be in Nevada, in another state, or abroad for property in the United States; the notary must be physically in Nevada, records the session, and keeps the recording for at least seven years. The deed comes out as an electronic document, so confirm that the county recorder accepts electronic recording, or have the notary certify a paper copy.

Where do I get a Nevada quitclaim deed form?

Nevada has no official quitclaim deed form; the statutes say how a deed is signed, acknowledged, and recorded, and leave the words to the parties. A form written for no particular state can fail a Nevada recorder in three places. It has no space for the assessor's parcel number in the top left corner, and no line for the name and address to which the tax statement should be mailed. It leaves no three-inch square blank at the top right for the recording stamp. And it will not come with the Declaration of Value, which every deed needs. If you would rather start from something built for this state, our Quitclaim Deed Help page lists prepared forms and deed preparation services.