Oklahoma Quitclaim Deed Instructions

Step 1: Find the County Clerk for the County Where the Property Is Located

An Oklahoma deed is recorded with the county clerk for the county where the real estate is located, which need not be the county where you live. Oklahoma has no state directory of its 77 county clerks, so search for the county's name and "county clerk." The office's page says whether it takes documents at the counter, by mail, or through electronic recording, which the statute allows but does not require any clerk to offer.

Recording is what protects the grantee. As between the grantor and the grantee, a deed is valid when it is signed and delivered, acknowledged or not. But no deed is valid as against third persons unless it is acknowledged and recorded. From the moment a properly acknowledged deed is filed with the clerk, it is constructive notice of its contents to every later purchaser, mortgagee, and creditor. So a quitclaim deed left in a drawer binds the grantor, but it does not protect the person it was given to against the grantor's later buyers, lenders, or creditors.

Step 2: Set Up the Deed on Oklahoma's Statutory Form

Oklahoma's quitclaim deed is the statutory warranty deed with one word added and one phrase taken out. The warranty form begins "Know all men by these Presents" and names the party of the first part. It recites the consideration "in hand paid, the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged." It says the grantor does "hereby grant, bargain, sell and convey" the described property in the named county, "together with all the improvements thereon and the appurtenances thereunto belonging, and warrant the title to the same." The quitclaim form inserts "quitclaim," so that the grantor does "hereby quitclaim, grant, bargain, sell and convey," and omits the words "and warrant the title to the same." That is the whole difference. A deed in substantial compliance with it conveys all the right, title, and interest the grantor has.

The recording statute adds what the deed must show. It must describe the property by its specific legal description, give the information the clerk needs to index it, and list the mailing address of the grantee, to whom the deed is returned after recording. The stamp tax statute separately requires the buyer's name and address on the face of the deed. Where the county has adopted a land parcel identifier system, the parcel number goes on the deed too. No seal and no witnesses are needed. The paper standards are statewide and Step 9 gives them.

Step 3: Fill In the Grantor, and Say Whether a Spouse Joins

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. A deed may be signed by an attorney-in-fact, and where it affects the homestead the power of attorney must be recorded with the county clerk first.

Oklahoma does not require the deed to state whether the grantor is married, but the answer decides whether there is a second signature. If the property is the homestead, both husband and wife must sign, whatever name is on the title; if it is not, the owning spouse signs alone. Step 6 explains. Many grantors add "a married person" or "a single person" after the name, so that a later reader knows why there is one signature or two. Oklahoma also has a curative statute for a nonhomestead deed one spouse signed alone: an affidavit by the other spouse that the property was not the homestead makes the title marketable.

Step 4: Fill In the Grantee, With a Mailing Address, and Say How Co-Owners Take Title

Name the grantee, the party taking the interest, by the full legal name that should appear on the next deed and on the tax roll. Give the grantee's mailing address, which the recording statute and the stamp tax statute both require on the face of the deed. 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. The grantee is also the one who signs the land-ownership affidavit in Step 9.

Two or more grantees need one more phrase saying how they hold title. Under Oklahoma's property code, a joint tenancy, equal shares with the survivor taking the whole, exists only when the deed expressly declares it; without those words the grantees hold separate shares that pass by will or inheritance. Between husband and wife, the deed may instead declare a tenancy by the entirety, which only spouses can hold, and the grantor elects which. Either may be created by an owner deeding to themselves and one or more others, including a spouse, without a third person in between. Where the granting clause of a deed declares a joint tenancy or an entirety, it controls over any inconsistent words later in the deed. So write "as joint tenants with right of survivorship" or "as tenants by the entirety" in the granting clause, and nowhere else.

Step 5: Add the Legal Description and State the Consideration

Copy the legal description word for word from the current deed: the lot and block and the addition, or the section, township, and range with the quarter, or the metes and bounds. A street address is not a legal description, and the clerk may refuse a deed that does not describe the property by its specific legal description. Add the parcel identifier number where the county uses one.

State the consideration. The form recites a sum "in hand paid," and the stamp tax in Step 8 is figured on the consideration or value of the interest conveyed, not counting any lien that stays on the property. For a gift, recite that the deed is made for love and affection, or for no consideration, and note the exemption on the face of the deed. The Tax Commission's rules say the clerk must demand documentation of an exemption that is not noted there. Do not put a Social Security number on the deed; it becomes a public record.

Step 6: If You Are Married, Decide Whether Your Spouse Signs

Oklahoma is not a community property state, and a husband or wife may convey, mortgage, or contract about any real estate they own, other than the homestead, without the other joining. The homestead is different, and the rule is strict. No deed, mortgage, or contract affecting the homestead exempt by law is valid unless it is in writing and signed by both husband and wife, if both are living and not divorced or legally separated. Outside a few narrow exceptions, a deed of the family home signed by one spouse alone is not valid, whichever name the title stands in. The main exceptions are these. A spouse who has abandoned the other for a year, or moved out of the state for a year, need not join, and an attorney-in-fact may sign for either spouse under a recorded power of attorney. A deed of the homestead that has been of record for ten years without challenge is treated as if the spouse had consented.

A rental house, a vacant lot, or farmland the couple does not live on is not the homestead, and the owning spouse may deed it alone. If that spouse's deed is later questioned, the other spouse's recorded affidavit that the property was nonhomestead, or a later deed from that spouse reciting the same, makes the title marketable. If you are not sure whether a property is the homestead, that question is worth an attorney's view before anyone signs, because it decides whether the deed works at all.

Step 7: Sign Before a Notary, in Person or Online

A deed must be acknowledged before the county clerk may receive it. The statute goes further than most: the recording of a deed that was not executed and acknowledged in substantial compliance with the chapter "shall not be effective for any purpose." No witnesses are required. You sign, or acknowledge a signature already made, before a notary public, who completes a certificate and applies the seal. A deed signed in another state is acknowledged before that state's notary.

Oklahoma allows remote online notarization, and has since January 1, 2020. A notary physically in Oklahoma who has registered with the Secretary of State and been authorized may take your acknowledgment by communication technology. You may be anywhere in Oklahoma or the United States, or abroad if the deed concerns Oklahoma property and the act is not prohibited where you are. The notary identifies you by personal knowledge, by a government identification credential you present on camera with credential analysis and identity proofing, or by a credible witness, and keeps an electronic journal of the act. The result is an electronic record, so ask the county clerk whether it accepts electronic recording before you book. Our Remote Online Notarization by State page compares the states.

Step 8: Work Out the Documentary Stamp Tax, or Note the Exemption

Oklahoma's documentary stamp tax falls on each deed by which realty sold is conveyed, when the consideration or value of the interest conveyed, not counting any lien or encumbrance remaining on it, is more than $100. The rate is 75 cents for each $500 of consideration or fraction of $500, so a $200,000 sale carries $300. The tax is paid by the person who makes or signs the deed, or for whose benefit it is made. It is paid only with documentary stamps, which the county clerk sells and affixes to the deed before recording. The stamps are not affixed until the tax is paid, and the deed is not accepted for recording until the stamps are on it. The name and address of the buyer must be on the face of the deed before it is recorded.

The tax reaches only realty sold, and the exemptions cover most family deeds. Exempt are deeds between husband and wife, between parent and child, or between any persons related within the second degree of consanguinity, which reaches grandparents, grandchildren, and siblings, made without actual consideration. Exempt too are deeds between a person and an express revocable trust created by that person or the person's spouse, and deeds to a company or partnership owned only by the transferor and close relatives, subject to a one-year clawback. So are deeds that confirm or correct an earlier deed, deeds securing or releasing a debt, and deeds of partition. The Tax Commission's rules add that a conveyance without consideration, including a bona fide gift to anyone, is not a sale and is not taxed. Note the exemption on the face of the deed, with the paragraph of the statute or rule that applies, and the clerk records without stamps.

Step 9: Attach the Land-Ownership Affidavit the Grantee Signs

Since November 1, 2023, Oklahoma has required every deed recorded with a county clerk to carry an affidavit as an exhibit. It is executed by the person coming into title, or by that person's attorney-in-fact, guardian, or personal representative, or by an officer of the entity or the trustee of the trust taking title. The affidavit attests that the land is being obtained in compliance with the state's law restricting ownership of land by aliens and foreign government adversaries. It also attests that no funding source is being used in violation of that law or any other state or federal law. The county clerk shall not accept and record any deed without it, and it must be notarized. The Attorney General publishes the forms; the one for an individual is Affidavit of Land or Mineral Ownership: Individual, with separate forms for a business or trust. The grantee completes the form and signs it before a notary.

The statute lists the deeds that need no affidavit. They are a deed that confirms or corrects an earlier deed without new consideration, a deed made to cure a title defect or disclaim an interest, and a transfer-on-death deed. Also court orders in quiet title, probate, partition, and divorce actions, a deed that secures or releases a debt, a dedication to the public, and a deed to the United States, a state, a subdivision, or a tribe. Where an exemption applies, it must be shown on the face of the deed before recording. A gift deed to a child is not exempt, so the child signs the affidavit.

Step 10: Record the Deed, With the Affidavit, the Stamps, and the Fee

Take or mail the acknowledged deed, with the affidavit attached, to the county clerk for the county where the property is located, with the recording fee and the money for the stamps if any tax is due. The fee is set by state statute and is the same in every county: $8 for the first page, $2 for each additional page, and a $10 records management and preservation fee on every instrument. That is $18 for a one-page deed and $20 for two pages, with the affidavit's pages counted. The clerk affixes the stamps, records the deed, and returns it to the address on its face. Keep the recorded deed with the property's papers.

The paper standards are statewide. The deed must be an original or a certified copy, legible, in English, in dark reproducible ink on reproducible paper, and no larger than legal size. It carries a top margin of at least two inches and other margins of at least one inch, with space left for the stamps and the clerk's recording information; if there is no room the clerk attaches a page for them. A deed that misses the standards but is legible and reproducible is still recorded, at $25 for the first page and $10 for each page after. If your reason for the deed is to pass the property at your death, Oklahoma offers a transfer-on-death deed instead. It is recorded now and takes effect only when you die, needs no consideration and no land-ownership affidavit, and changes nothing while you live. It is not a quitclaim deed.

Where do I record an Oklahoma quitclaim deed?

With the county clerk for the county where the real estate is located, whether or not you live there. Oklahoma has no state directory of its 77 county clerks; search the county's name and "county clerk." A deed is valid between grantor and grantee when signed and delivered, but it is not valid against anyone else until it is acknowledged and recorded. From filing it is constructive notice to later buyers, lenders, and creditors.

Does my spouse have to sign an Oklahoma quitclaim deed?

If the property is the homestead, the home you live in, yes. No deed affecting the homestead is valid unless it is signed by both husband and wife, if both are living and not divorced or legally separated, whichever name is on the title. Apart from a few narrow exceptions explained in Step 6, a deed with one signature is not valid. Any other real estate a spouse owns may be deeded without the other joining, and a nonhomestead deed one spouse signed alone can be made marketable by the other spouse's recorded affidavit that the property was not the homestead.

Do I owe Oklahoma's documentary stamp tax on a quitclaim deed to a family member?

Not on a gift. The tax is 75 cents for each $500 of consideration, on realty sold for more than $100. The statute exempts deeds between husband and wife, between parent and child, and between any persons related within the second degree of consanguinity, which includes grandparents, grandchildren, and siblings, made without actual consideration. A deed into an express revocable trust created by the owner or the owner's spouse is exempt too, and the Tax Commission's rules say a bona fide gift to anyone, being no sale, is not taxed. Note the exemption and the statute's paragraph on the face of the deed, or the clerk will ask for documentation.

What is the land-ownership affidavit, and does a family deed need it?

Since November 1, 2023, every deed recorded in Oklahoma that is not on the statute's exempt list must carry, as an exhibit, a notarized affidavit by the person taking title. It attests that the land is being acquired in compliance with Oklahoma's law restricting land ownership by aliens and foreign government adversaries, and that no funding source is being used in violation of the law. Without it the county clerk may not record the deed. The Attorney General publishes the forms for individuals and for businesses and trusts. The exemptions are corrective deeds, deeds curing title or disclaiming an interest, transfer-on-death deeds, court orders, security deeds, dedications, and deeds to governments, so a gift deed to a relative needs the affidavit, signed by the relative.

How do two owners get survivorship on an Oklahoma deed?

By declaring it in the granting clause. A joint tenancy, equal shares with the survivor taking the whole, exists only when the deed expressly declares it; otherwise co-owners hold separate shares. A married couple may declare a joint tenancy or a tenancy by the entirety, which only spouses can hold, as the deed elects. An owner may create either by deeding to themselves and others, a spouse included, without a third person in between, and the granting clause controls over any inconsistent words later in the deed.

Can I get an Oklahoma quitclaim deed notarized online?

Yes. Since January 1, 2020, a notary physically in Oklahoma who has registered with the Secretary of State and been authorized may take an acknowledgment by communication technology. The signer may be anywhere in Oklahoma or the United States, or abroad if the deed concerns Oklahoma property. The notary identifies the signer by personal knowledge, by a government identification credential presented on camera with credential analysis and identity proofing, or by a credible witness, and keeps an electronic journal. The result is an electronic record, so confirm that the county clerk accepts electronic recording before you book.

Where do I get an Oklahoma quitclaim deed form?

Oklahoma prints a warranty deed form in its statutes and defines the quitclaim deed as that form with "quitclaim" added and the warranty omitted, so any form that follows it in substance gets the core wording right. A form written for no particular state fails in the pieces around it. It has no line for the grantee's mailing address, which the deed must carry on its face. It has no second signature line for the spouse a homestead deed needs, and no place to note the stamp tax exemption. And it will not come with the land-ownership affidavit that Oklahoma has required since 2023 on every deed not on the exempt list in Step 9. If you would rather start from something built for this state, our Quitclaim Deed Help page lists prepared forms and deed preparation services.