New Jersey Quitclaim Deed Instructions

Step 1: Find the County Clerk, or the Register of Deeds, for the County Where the Land Is Located

A New Jersey deed is recorded with the county recording officer for the county where the land is located, which need not be the county you live in. In a county that has a register of deeds and mortgages, that officer is the register; in the others, it is the county clerk. New Jersey has 21 counties, and the state's own County Information page lists each one with its address and telephone number and a link to its county clerk's website. The clerk's site says whether the office takes documents by mail, at the counter, or through electronic recording.

Recording is what protects the grantee. A recorded deed is notice to every later buyer, lender, and judgment creditor from the moment it is recorded. An unrecorded deed is of no effect against a later judgment creditor without notice, or against a later good-faith buyer or lender who paid value without notice and recorded first. So the deed protects the grantee only once it is on the clerk's books.

Step 2: Set Up the Deed So the Clerk Will Accept It

New Jersey's recording statute lists what a deed must show before the clerk accepts it. It is in English. It bears a signature, acknowledged or proved as the conveyancing statutes require, with the name printed beneath every signature. It states the lot and block number of the property from the municipality's tax map at the time of the conveyance, preceded by "part of" if the property has been subdivided. If the property has an account number instead, it states that, and if neither has been assigned, it says so. It names the person who prepared the deed. It gives the mailing address of the grantee. And it meets the transfer fee statute: the consideration is stated in the deed or an appended affidavit, and where an exemption is claimed, an affidavit stating the basis is attached.

The deed is printed on paper no larger than 8½ by 14 inches. It goes to the clerk with a cover sheet, on the form the state's Division of Archives and Records Management prescribes. The cover sheet gives the nature and date of the document, the names it is indexed under, the lot and block, the consideration, and the grantee's mailing address. A deed without one is recorded for $20 more. No seal is required on the deed or the acknowledgment.

Step 3: Fill In the Grantor, and Name the Preparer

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 clerk 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. New Jersey does not require the deed to state whether the grantor is married, but Step 7 explains why a married grantor's spouse joins a deed of the home.

On the first page of the deed, add "Prepared by:" and the name of the person who drew it up, with a signature. The recording statute requires the preparer's name, and the clerk will not record without it. The grantor also signs the Seller's Residency Certification that Step 9 explains, whatever the price and even for a gift.

Step 4: Fill In the Grantee, With a Mailing Address

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 clerk may record nothing without it. The same address goes on the cover sheet. It is where the clerk's abstract of the deed, and then the tax bill, will be sent.

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 state filing. Two or more grantees need one more phrase saying how they hold title, and Step 6 explains why a married couple in New Jersey get survivorship without asking for it while anyone else has to ask.

Step 5: State the Consideration, and Work Out the Realty Transfer Fee

New Jersey's Realty Transfer Fee falls on the grantor and is paid to the clerk when the deed is offered for recording. It is built from several statutory pieces that rise with the price, and the Division of Taxation publishes them as one sliding scale. Where the total consideration is $350,000 or less, the fee is $2.00 for each $500 of consideration up to $150,000, $3.35 per $500 from there to $200,000, and $3.90 per $500 above that. Where the total is more than $350,000, every bracket is higher, from $2.90 per $500 on the first $150,000 up to $6.05 per $500 above $1,000,000. The Division's own example: a $325,000 sale carries a fee of $1,910. Consideration means everything given for the property, including the balance of any mortgage the grantee takes over. A grantor who is 62 or older, blind, or disabled, and sells the one- or two-family home they own and live in, pays a reduced scale, claimed on the affidavit.

The exemptions that matter for a family deed are written into the statute. The fee does not apply to a deed for consideration of less than $100, or to a deed between husband and wife, or parent and child. Nor does it apply to a deed recorded within 90 days after a divorce decree between the grantor and grantee, to a deed by an executor to an heir, or to a deed that only corrects an earlier one. The Division reads "parent and child" to include an adopted child but not a stepchild, and a deed to a child and someone else is exempt only for the child's share. A deed to a grandchild, a sibling, or a trust has no exemption of its own. It escapes the fee only if the consideration, counting any mortgage the grantee takes over, is under $100, and the Division treats a deed into a trust as a transfer of ownership like any other. An exempt deed still needs the Affidavit of Consideration, Form RTF-1, sworn before a notary and recorded with the deed, explaining the exemption in words rather than by symbol. For a residential sale above $1,000,000 the grantor also pays a graduated fee of 1 to 3.5 percent of the whole price, shifted from the buyer to the seller on July 10, 2025, and files Form RTF-1EE.

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 lot on a filed map that is the lot number and the map's filing reference; for other land it is the metes and bounds. New Jersey adds the tax-map lot and block number on the first page, which Step 2 covers, and the description names the municipality and county. A street address is not a legal description.

If two or more people will own the property, New Jersey has two rules, one for married couples and one for everyone else. A deed to a husband and wife that names them as husband and wife creates a tenancy by the entirety, in which each owns the whole and the survivor keeps it. The only exception is a deed that expressly says they take as tenants in common or joint tenants. An owner may create it by deeding the property to themselves and their spouse together. A deed to anyone else, a parent and child included, creates a tenancy in common: separate shares that pass by will or inheritance. The exception is a deed that expressly sets out that a joint tenancy and not a tenancy in common is intended. So a parent and child who want the survivor to take the whole write "as joint tenants with right of survivorship, and not as tenants in common".

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

New Jersey's rule has two layers. Dower and curtesy, the old survivor's shares, no longer arise for anyone who married or acquired property on or after May 28, 1980, so for anyone who married or bought after that date there is no dower to release. In their place the statute gives every married person a right of joint possession of the home the couple occupy together as their principal matrimonial residence. Anyone who takes title from a married owner takes it subject to that right unless the spouse has released it in writing, or a court has ended it, or the couple have abandoned the home. So a deed of the marital home signed by the owning spouse alone is not void, but the grantee holds the property subject to the other spouse's right to live there for as long as the marriage lasts.

The practical rule follows. If you are married and deeding the house you both live in, have your spouse sign the deed too, releasing the right of joint possession, whether or not both names are on the title. Property that is not the couple's residence, a rental house or land they do not live on, carries no such right and may be conveyed by the owning spouse alone. Where the owner acquired the property before May 28, 1980 and was married then, the older dower or curtesy right may still exist and the spouse's release is needed for that reason instead. A deed from one spouse to the other of the home they share raises none of this, since the receiving spouse's own right of possession is not affected.

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

A deed must be acknowledged before it can be recorded, and New Jersey requires no witnesses. The grantor appears before an officer authorized to take acknowledgments and acknowledges that the deed was executed as the grantor's own act. In New Jersey that officer may be an attorney at law, a notary public, a county clerk or deputy, a register of deeds or deputy, or a surrogate. The officer signs a certificate stating that the grantor personally appeared, that the officer was satisfied the grantor was the maker, the place, the officer's name and title, and the date. No seal is needed. Print your name beneath your signature. A deed signed in another state is acknowledged before an officer that state authorizes.

New Jersey allows remote notarization. A notarial officer located in New Jersey may take your acknowledgment while you are somewhere else, over communication technology that lets you see and hear each other at the same time. The officer first confirms your identity by personal knowledge, a credible witness, or two different identity-proofing methods. The officer makes an audio-visual recording of the act, and the conveyancing statute counts the remote appearance as appearing before the officer. You may be in New Jersey, in another state, or, for property in the United States, abroad. Our Remote Online Notarization by State page compares the states.

Step 9: Complete the Seller's Residency Certification, Which Every Deed Needs

New Jersey's income tax law requires a nonresident who sells or transfers real estate here to pay an estimated tax before the deed is recorded, and it makes the county clerk the gatekeeper. The clerk may not record any deed unless it is accompanied by the Division of Taxation's form, with any estimated tax shown on it, or by the seller's certification on that form that the requirement does not apply. So every deed by an individual, an estate, or a trust arrives at the clerk with a GIT/REP form, gift or sale. For a grantor who lives in New Jersey, that is the Seller's Residency Certification, Form GIT/REP-3, with box 1 checked: the seller is a resident taxpayer who will file a resident return. The same form carries the other exemptions, among them a transfer between spouses or under a divorce decree, an executor's deed to an heir, a transfer of the seller's principal residence, and a transfer for $1,000 or less.

A grantor who does not live in New Jersey, and fits none of the form's exemptions, files Form GIT/REP-1 instead. With it goes an estimated tax of at least 2 percent of the consideration, or the gain taxed at the top income tax rate if that is more, paid to the clerk with the deed whether or not there is any gain. The Division's Technical Bulletin TB-57 walks through the forms. A mistake on the form does not invalidate a deed that was recorded, and the statute says so; a missing form stops the deed at the counter.

Step 10: Record the Deed, With the Fees

Take or mail the signed and acknowledged deed, with the cover sheet, the affidavit if one is needed, and the GIT/REP form, to the county clerk or register for the county where the land lies. The recording fee is $30 for the first page and $10 for each additional page, plus $10 for preparing and sending the tax assessor an abstract of the deed, the same in every county. So a one-page deed costs $40 and a two-page deed $50. A deed with more than five names to index costs $6 for each name beyond five, and one without a cover sheet costs $20 more. The Realty Transfer Fee is paid at the same time, or the exemption affidavit stands in for it. Include a stamped envelope or the return address for the recorded deed.

After recording, the clerk sends the abstract to the municipal tax assessor, who moves the property to the grantee's name; that is what the $10 pays for. Keep the recorded deed with the property's papers. New Jersey's property tax deductions, for veterans and for owners 65 or older or disabled, are claimed from the municipal assessor or collector on application and do not pass with the deed. A new owner who may qualify asks the municipality what to file.

Where do I record a New Jersey quitclaim deed?

With the county clerk for the county where the land is located, whether or not you live there, or with the register of deeds and mortgages in a county that has one. The state's County Information page on NJ.gov lists all 21 counties with addresses and links to each clerk. An unrecorded deed is of no effect against a later judgment creditor without notice or a later good-faith buyer who records first; a recorded deed is notice to everyone from the moment it is recorded.

Is a New Jersey quitclaim deed to a family member exempt from the Realty Transfer Fee?

Between husband and wife, and between parent and child, yes, whatever the consideration, and the Division of Taxation counts an adopted child as a child but not a stepchild. A deed for consideration under $100 is exempt too, as is a deed recorded within 90 days after a divorce decree between the grantor and grantee. A deed to a grandchild, a sibling, or a trust has no exemption of its own; it escapes the fee only if the consideration, counting any mortgage assumed, is under $100. Where it is under $100, the deed still needs an affidavit stating why no fee is due. Claim any exemption on Form RTF-1, sworn before a notary and recorded with the deed.

Does my spouse have to sign a New Jersey quitclaim deed?

If the property is the home you and your spouse live in, have your spouse sign to release the right of joint possession. New Jersey gives every married person a right to joint possession of the couple's principal matrimonial residence. Anyone taking title from one spouse takes it subject to that right unless the other spouse has released it in writing. The deed is not void without the signature, but the grantee cannot put the spouse out. Property that is not the couple's home may be conveyed by the owning spouse alone, and dower and curtesy no longer arise for property acquired on or after May 28, 1980.

What is the GIT/REP-3 form, and do I need it for a gift?

It is the Seller's Residency Certification, and every deed by an individual, estate, or trust needs a GIT/REP form, gift or sale, because the county clerk may not record a deed without one. A grantor who is a New Jersey resident checks the box certifying that and files a resident return. The form also covers a transfer between spouses or under a divorce decree, an executor's deed to an heir, a principal residence, and a transfer for $1,000 or less. A nonresident grantor who fits no exemption files Form GIT/REP-1 and pays an estimated tax of at least 2 percent of the consideration with the deed.

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

A deed to a husband and wife does: it creates a tenancy by the entirety, and the survivor keeps the whole, unless the deed says they take as tenants in common or joint tenants. A deed to a child, or to anyone who is not the grantee's spouse, creates a tenancy in common with no survivorship unless the deed expressly sets out that a joint tenancy is intended. Write "as joint tenants with right of survivorship, and not as tenants in common" if that is what you want.

Can I get a New Jersey quitclaim deed notarized online?

Yes. A notarial officer located in New Jersey may take an acknowledgment for a remotely located individual over communication technology that lets both see and hear each other at once. The officer confirms your identity by personal knowledge, a credible witness, or two different identity-proofing methods, and makes an audio-visual recording. The conveyancing statute counts that as appearing before the officer. Confirm that the county clerk accepts an electronic deed before you book the session.

Where do I get a New Jersey quitclaim deed form?

New Jersey has no official quitclaim deed form; the statutes say what a recorded deed must contain and leave the words to the parties. A form written for no particular state can fail a New Jersey clerk in three places. It has no line for the lot and block number from the tax map, no "Prepared by" line naming the person who drew it up, and no line for the grantee's mailing address. And it will not come with the cover sheet, the affidavit of consideration, or the GIT/REP form. If you would rather start from something built for this state, our Quitclaim Deed Help page lists prepared forms and deed preparation services.