Virginia Quitclaim Deed Instructions

Step 1: Find the Circuit Court Clerk for the County or City Where the Property Is Located

Virginia deeds are recorded by the clerk of the circuit court for the county or city where the land lies. Virginia's independent cities are not inside any county, so a property in a city goes to that city's clerk, and one in a county of the same name goes to the county's. The statute's deed form itself asks for "the name of the city or county in which the property is located." The court system publishes a directory of the circuit courts with every circuit court's address, the clerk's name and telephone number, and office hours. A clerk with an electronic recording system also takes deeds submitted through that system.

Recording is what protects the grantee. Until a deed is recorded in the county or city where the property is located, it is void as to later purchasers for value without notice and as to lien creditors. The clerk records a deed only for a person whose signature has been acknowledged or proved as Step 7 describes. The clerk may refuse a deed in which the name it is to be indexed under does not legibly appear. Unless a cover sheet comes with it, the clerk may also refuse a deed whose first page is missing any item on the statute's list. Step 2 sets out that list.

Step 2: Set Up the Deed, and Get the First Page Right

Virginia's statute gives every deed an optional form: "This deed, made the ___ day of ___, in the year ___, between (the parties as grantors or grantees), witnesseth: that in consideration of (the consideration, nominal or actual), the said ___ does grant unto the said ___, all (the property, including the name of the city or county in which it is located). Witness the following signature." A quitclaim deed uses that frame with "quitclaim" as the operative word: the grantor "does hereby quitclaim and convey" all right, title, and interest. It carries no warranty of title. Title it "Quitclaim Deed" at the top.

The clerk may reject a deed unless its first page carries what the indexing statute lists. Each individual's surname is underlined or in capital letters the first time the parties are named. Each party is identified as grantor or grantee in that first clause. The amount of the consideration and the actual value of the property appear. The Virginia or federal law under which any exemption from recordation tax is claimed is stated. And a name and current address for returning the deed is given. Every page must be numbered. Where the city or county uses a parcel numbering system, the clerk must require the tax map or parcel number on the first page. A clerk may also require a cover sheet on the court system's form carrying the same items. Where a cover sheet is used, the deed itself need not repeat them.

Two more first-page rules apply to a deed of a home or other residential property with no more than four dwelling units. The deed must state the name of the title insurance underwriter insuring it, or that the existence of title insurance is unknown to the preparer. And it must state that it was prepared by the owner of the property or by an attorney licensed in Virginia, giving the attorney's name and bar number. The person who prepares the deed is responsible for both statements and for removing any Social Security number before the deed is submitted.

Step 3: Fill In the Grantor, and Decide Whether a Spouse Signs

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, with the surname underlined or in capitals, because the clerk indexes under that name. Where the grantor is a trust, the trustee signs as trustee; where it is a company, an officer signs with their title.

Virginia ended dower and curtesy in 1991, and no statute requires a spouse who is not an owner to join a deed. Two situations bring the spouse in anyway. Where spouses hold the property as tenants by the entirety, the interest can be severed by a written instrument only if it is a deed signed by both spouses as grantors, so both sign. And where both spouses are on the title in any form, both are grantors. A surviving spouse's claim to a share of the estate at death is a separate matter that a deed does not settle, and an attorney can explain it.

Step 4: Fill In the Grantee, 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. Treat the surname the same way, and give the mailing address. 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 Corporation Commission record.

Two or more grantees need one more phrase, and in Virginia the usual words are not enough. When property is titled in two or more names "jointly," as "joint tenants," or in a "joint tenancy," the owners hold a joint tenancy without survivorship. A deceased owner's share passes to their heirs or by will, as if they had been a tenant in common. Survivorship arises only if the deed adds "with survivorship" or equivalent words, or otherwise makes it manifest that the share of the one dying is to belong to the others. So write "as joint tenants with the right of survivorship" if that is what you mean. Spouses have a third choice, tenancy by the entirety, in which each owns the whole and the survivor keeps it. It must be spelled out by naming them "tenants by the entirety." A deed to spouses that uses none of these words gives them equal separate halves.

Step 5: Add the Legal Description

Copy the legal description word for word from the current deed. Virginia descriptions run by metes and bounds, or by lot and section on a subdivision plat recorded in the clerk's office. A recital of the deed that conveyed the property to the grantor usually follows: "being the same property conveyed to the grantor by deed dated ___, recorded in Deed Book ___, page ___," or by instrument number in offices that no longer use books. Name the county or city, as the statute's form requires. A street address is not a legal description. Add the tax map or parcel number on the first page where the city or county uses one. Do not put a Social Security number on the deed; the clerk may refuse it, and the preparer is responsible for removing it.

Step 6: State the Consideration and the Value, and Cite Any Exemption

The consideration and the actual value of the property go on the first page. For a sale, the consideration is the price. For a gift, write that the transfer is "for no consideration" and give the property's value, which for recordation tax purposes means the most recent property tax assessment. The grantor's tax statute says no deed of realty sold may be recorded unless the consideration is stated on the first page, and the indexing statute extends that to the value. The clerk may check the consideration, the value, and any exemption claimed by inquiry, affidavit, or other evidence acceptable to the clerk. Knowingly misrepresenting the consideration, or any other information the clerk asks for, is a Class 1 misdemeanor. A false understatement also carries a penalty equal to the tax evaded.

If the transfer is exempt from recordation tax, the deed must say so on its face and cite the law. For a family gift, the exemption to cite is the one for "any deed of gift, quitclaim deed, or deed to correct a fraudulently recorded deed" when no consideration has passed. The statute adds that the deed "shall state therein that it is a deed of gift, quitclaim deed without consideration, or deed to correct a fraudulently recorded deed." A line such as "This deed is exempt from recordation tax under Virginia Code § 58.1-811(D) as a quitclaim deed without consideration" does both jobs. Step 8 covers the taxes and the other exemptions.

Step 7: Sign Before a Notary, or Have Two Witnesses Prove the Signature

The clerk records a deed for a person whose original signature is on it "when it shall have been acknowledged by him, or proved by two witnesses as to him." The usual route is an acknowledgment: you appear before a notary public, present the deed, are identified, and indicate that you signed it voluntarily. Virginia's notary law defines satisfactory evidence of identity as an unexpired document bearing your photograph and signature, such as a passport, a state driver's license or ID card, or a military card. The oath of one credible witness who personally knows you and is personally known to the notary also serves, or the oaths of two credible witnesses who know you and show identification. The notary's certificate states the date, the county or city and state where the act took place, the notary's signature and seal, and the commission's expiration date. No witnesses are required for an acknowledged deed. The second route, proof by two subscribing witnesses, means the witnesses who signed the deed appear before a notary or the clerk and swear that they saw you sign. It does not replace the officer's certificate.

A notary in another state may take the acknowledgment, and so may a clerk of a court of record or, abroad, a United States consular officer. Virginia also lets a notary commissioned as an electronic notary by the Secretary of the Commonwealth take an acknowledgment by live audio and video while you are somewhere else. The notary must identify you by personal knowledge, by a credible witness, or by at least two of the methods the statute lists, such as credential analysis of your photo identification and an identity-proofing check. The certificate states the county or city in Virginia where the notary was physically located and says the act was done by remote online notarization. The act is treated as performed in Virginia. The Secretary of the Commonwealth's notary page explains the commission. Confirm that the clerk will accept the result before you book. Our Remote Online Notarization by State page compares the states.

Step 8: Work Out the Recordation Taxes

Virginia levies a state recordation tax on every deed admitted to record, unless the deed is exempt. The rate is 25 cents on every $100, or fraction of $100, of the consideration or the actual value of the property, whichever is greater. A city or county may add a local recordation tax of one-third of the state amount. On a sale there is also a grantor's tax of 50 cents on every $500 of the consideration or value, whichever is greater, less any lien that stays on the property. The grantor pays it unless the parties arrange for the grantee to pay. In the Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads areas, regional transportation fees are added on sales at rates set by statute, and the clerk can quote them. No deed may be recorded until the taxes and the $3 open-space preservation fee are paid.

The exemptions cover most family quitclaim deeds. No recordation tax at all is due on a deed of gift, a quitclaim deed, or a deed correcting a deed recorded by fraud when no consideration has passed, provided the deed says so. The state and local taxes also do not apply to a deed to the trustees of a revocable living trust where the grantors and the beneficiaries are the same people and no consideration passed. Nor do they apply to a deed of partition among co-owners, or to a deed made under a divorce decree or a written separation agreement. The grantor's tax and regional fees do not apply to those transfers either. A transfer on death deed, and a deed of distribution out of an estate or trust, are exempt when no consideration passed. A sale to a relative, or a deed in which the grantee takes over a mortgage, is not a gift, and the taxes fall on the consideration or the value.

Step 9: Record the Deed and Pay the Fees

Take or mail the acknowledged deed, with any cover sheet the clerk requires, to the clerk of the circuit court for the county or city where the property is located, with the fees and any tax due. The clerk's recording fee is set by statute: $18 for a deed of ten pages or fewer, or $32 for eleven to thirty pages. A Technology Trust Fund fee of $8 is added on each instrument recorded in the deed book, so a short deed costs $26. Cities and counties where the Virginia Outdoors Foundation holds open-space easements add the $3 open-space fee. A deed on which the state tax is assessed also pays a $20 deed processing fee under the state budget act, which the court system's fee schedule sets out. The clerk certifies the tax paid on the deed, records it, and returns it to the address on the first page or the cover sheet.

Virginia also has a transfer on death deed. Under the Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act, an owner may record a revocable deed that names a beneficiary and takes effect only at the owner's death. It must meet the formalities of an ordinary deed, say that the transfer occurs at death, and be recorded before the owner dies. It is exempt from recordation tax when no consideration passes. The statute prints an optional form. That deed, not a quitclaim deed, is the one Virginia provides for passing property at death outside a will, and an attorney can say whether it suits the estate plan.

Where do I record a Virginia quitclaim deed?

With the clerk of the circuit court for the county or independent city where the property is located. Virginia's independent cities are not part of any county, so a property in a city goes to the city's clerk even where a county shares the name. The court system's directory of the circuit courts gives every clerk's address, telephone number, and hours. The deed itself names the county or city.

Who is allowed to prepare a Virginia quitclaim deed?

For a house or any residential property with no more than four dwelling units, the deed must state on its first page who prepared it. The preparer must be the owner of the property or an attorney licensed in Virginia, named with the attorney's bar number. So an owner may prepare their own deed, and a Virginia attorney may prepare it for anyone. The same deed must state the title insurance underwriter or that title insurance is unknown to the preparer. The rule does not apply to deeds of land without a residence or of larger buildings.

Does my spouse have to sign a Virginia quitclaim deed?

Only if your spouse is an owner. Virginia ended dower and curtesy in 1991, and no statute requires a spouse who is not on the title to join a deed. Where spouses hold the property as tenants by the entirety, it can be severed by a written instrument only if that instrument is a deed signed by both spouses as grantors. Where both names are on the title in any form, both are grantors and both sign.

Do I owe Virginia recordation tax on a quitclaim deed to a family member?

Not if no consideration passed and the deed says so. Virginia law requires no recordation tax on "any deed of gift, quitclaim deed, or deed to correct a fraudulently recorded deed" between the parties when no consideration has passed. The deed must state on its face that it is a deed of gift or a quitclaim deed without consideration, citing the exemption. The clerk may ask for evidence. A sale to a relative, or a deed in which the grantee takes over the mortgage, is taxed on the consideration or the assessed value, whichever is greater.

How do two owners get survivorship on a Virginia deed?

By adding the words. In Virginia, a deed to two or more people "jointly" or as "joint tenants" creates a joint tenancy without survivorship, and a deceased owner's share passes to their heirs or by will. The deed must add "with survivorship," or make the intent manifest, for the survivor to take the whole. Spouses who want survivorship are named "tenants by the entirety"; a deed to spouses that says nothing gives them equal separate halves.

Can I get a Virginia quitclaim deed notarized online?

Yes. A Virginia notary commissioned as an electronic notary by the Secretary of the Commonwealth may take your acknowledgment by live audio and video while you are elsewhere. The notary identifies you by personal knowledge, a credible witness, or at least two of the methods the statute lists, such as credential analysis of your photo identification and an identity-proofing check. The certificate states the Virginia county or city where the notary was located and that the act was done by remote online notarization. Confirm that the circuit court clerk accepts the result before you book.

Where do I get a Virginia quitclaim deed form?

Virginia's statute prints a general deed form but no quitclaim form, so any deed in that frame that quitclaims the grantor's right, title, and interest, acknowledged before a notary, gets the core wording right. A form written for no particular state fails on the first page. It has no place for the surname in capitals, the consideration and value, the exemption citation, the tax map number, the preparer's statement, or the title insurance statement, and the clerk may reject it. If you would rather start from something built for this state, our Quitclaim Deed Help page lists prepared forms and deed preparation services.