Wisconsin Quitclaim Deed Instructions

Step 1: Find the Register of Deeds for the County Where the Property Is Located

Wisconsin deeds are recorded by the register of deeds of the county where the land lies. The statute says every conveyance "shall be entitled to record in the office of the register of deeds of each county in which land affected thereby may lie," and the register must record every document that is not prohibited by law from being recorded. Each county's register of deeds office is listed on the county's website.

Recording is what protects the grantee. Every conveyance that is not recorded "shall be void as against any subsequent purchaser, in good faith and for a valuable consideration, of the same real estate ... whose conveyance is recorded first." So a quitclaim deed left in a drawer binds the grantor, but a later buyer from the same grantor who records first takes the property. Record it promptly.

Step 2: Set Up the Deed, and Lay Out the First Page

Wisconsin prints no quitclaim deed form. The statute lets any form that meets its requirements be used, and it names the requirements: the deed must identify the parties, identify the land, identify the interest conveyed and any condition on it, be signed by or on behalf of each grantor, and be delivered. A quitclaim deed says that the grantor "quitclaims" the described real estate to the grantee, and the statute supplies the effect: all the interest the grantor could lawfully convey, with no warranty. Words of inheritance are not needed. Title the deed "Quitclaim Deed" at the top.

The register of deeds may refuse a document that does not substantially follow the statute's format standards, and one of them is absolute. The first page must carry, in its upper right corner, a blank space at least three inches by three inches for the recording information; a document without it "may not be recorded." The document's name goes between half an inch and six inches from the top of the first page. The first page carries the return information, the name and address the deed goes back to. The deed carries the parcel identification number in a county that requires one, and the name of the person who drafted it, in the form "This instrument was drafted by (name)." The paper is white, at least 20-pound weight, 8.5 inches wide and 11 or 14 inches long, with a half-inch top margin and quarter-inch margins elsewhere. The ink is black, blue, or red, the text is legible enough to scan, and the names of the grantor, grantee, and notary are typed or clearly written. A deed that is to be indexed in the real estate records must also contain the full legal description, on the document or attached to it.

Step 3: Fill In the Grantor, and Decide Whether Both Spouses Sign

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 register 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, any one officer may sign in the corporate name unless a recorded resolution says otherwise.

Wisconsin has two rules about spouses, and they work differently. The first is the homestead rule. A conveyance is not valid unless it is "signed, or joined in by separate conveyance, by or on behalf of each spouse, if the conveyance alienates any interest of a married person in a homestead," except a conveyance between the spouses. The homestead is the dwelling and the land reasonably necessary for its use as a home, at least a quarter acre and at most forty acres. So a deed of the family home from a married owner needs the other spouse's signature whichever name is on the title, and the courts have held that the rule cannot be waived. The second is marital property. Wisconsin is a marital property state, all property of spouses is presumed to be marital property, and each spouse has a present undivided one-half interest in it, whichever name is on the title. Property one spouse owned before the marriage, or received by gift or inheritance during it, is that spouse's individual property. For property that is not the homestead, the management statute lets a spouse acting alone convey marital property held in that spouse's name alone, and marital property held in both names other than "or" can be conveyed only by both spouses acting together. The other spouse's half interest is protected by remedies against the conveying spouse, which is a reason to have both spouses sign any deed of marital real estate, and an attorney can say whether it is needed.

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, with the grantee's 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 Department of Financial Institutions record.

Two or more grantees need one more phrase saying how they hold title. Two or more persons named as owners in a document of title "are tenants in common," with separate shares that pass by will or inheritance, unless the document expresses an intent to create a joint tenancy. The statute lists the words that do it: "as joint tenants," "as joint owners," "jointly," "or the survivor," "with right of survivorship," or any similar phrase. So write "as joint tenants with right of survivorship" after the names if that is what you mean. Spouses are the reverse. Grantees described as husband and wife, or who are in fact married, are joint tenants unless the deed expresses a tenancy in common, and a joint tenancy between spouses alone is classified as survivorship marital property, which passes to the survivor. A homestead acquired by spouses alone is survivorship marital property unless the deed says otherwise. Tenants in common own equal shares unless the deed states different ones.

Step 5: Add the Legal Description, the Parcel Number, and the Drafter's Name

Copy the full legal description word for word from the current deed. Wisconsin descriptions run by lot and block on a recorded plat or certified survey map, by condominium name and unit number, or by section, township, and range with a metes-and-bounds course. The statute defines a legal description as one written in those ways, and a deed to be indexed in the real estate records must contain it, on the document or attached. A street address is not a legal description. Add the parcel identification number from the property tax bill, which the register requires in counties that use one, and the "drafted by" line. Do not put a Social Security number on the deed; it becomes a public record.

Step 6: State the Consideration, and File the Electronic Real Estate Transfer Return

Recite the consideration: the price, or, for a gift, "for no consideration" or "for love and affection." The figure that matters is the one on the Real Estate Transfer Return. The grantee or the grantee's agent must execute it at the time the deed is submitted for recording, "signed by both grantor and grantee," on the form the Department of Revenue prescribes. Since 2009 the return is filed electronically, on the Department's Real Estate Transfer Return system, and the receipt it produces goes to the register with the deed. The return states the value of the interest transferred, the fee payable, and the parties' and property's details. Submitting a completed return and paying the fee "shall be prerequisites to acceptance of the conveyance for recording." The register has no duty to check the value or the exemption. But the Department may examine the records of either party for four years, and an understatement of 25 percent or more, or an exemption wrongly claimed, draws a penalty of $25 or 25 percent of the fee, whichever is greater.

If the transfer is exempt, "the reason for exemption shall be stated on the face of the conveyance to be recorded by reference to the proper subsection" of the exemption statute, and the register cites it on the deed. A line such as "Exempt from transfer fee under Wis. Stat. § 77.25(8m)" does the job for a deed between spouses. The Department's transfer fee exemption guide lists each exemption with the entries the return must carry to claim it. Step 8 covers the fee and the exemptions.

Step 7: Sign Before a Notary, or Have a Wisconsin Attorney Authenticate, or Sign by Remote Notarization

A deed offered for record must "contain a form of authentication" that the statutes allow, and Wisconsin allows two. The usual one is an acknowledgment before a notary public. You appear before the notary with the deed and declare that you signed it for the purpose it states. The notary identifies you by personal knowledge or by satisfactory evidence. That means a passport, driver's license, or government-issued ID card, current or expired within the last three years, another government ID with your signature or photograph that satisfies the notary, or the oath of a credible witness the notary knows or can identify. The notary may ask for more. The certificate states the date, the state and county, the notary's title and commission expiration, and carries the official stamp. The statute prints a short form that reads "This record was acknowledged before me on (date) by (name)." No witnesses are required.

The second form is peculiar to Wisconsin. Any member in good standing of the State Bar of Wisconsin may authenticate the signatures on an instrument relating to Wisconsin land by endorsing it "Authenticated," with the date, the attorney's signature, and the attorney's title. The endorsement certifies that each signature is genuine. A deed prepared by a Wisconsin lawyer may be authenticated that way instead of notarized.

Wisconsin also allows remote notarization. A notary public located in the state may take your acknowledgment by communication technology, live sight and sound, while you are somewhere else, identifying you by personal knowledge, by a credible witness, or by at least two different types of identity proofing, and recording the session. The certificate must say the act was performed using communication technology. The Department of Financial Institutions' Remote Online Notary page explains the notary's side. Confirm that the register of deeds will accept the result before you book. Our Remote Online Notarization by State page compares the states.

Step 8: Work Out the Real Estate Transfer Fee

Wisconsin's real estate transfer fee is imposed on the grantor at 30 cents for each $100 of value, or fraction of $100, on every conveyance that is not exempt, and the register collects it when the deed is submitted. "Value" means the full consideration paid or to be paid, including any lien on the property, and for a gift or a deed of nominal consideration it means the price the property would bring in an open market between a willing seller and a willing buyer. A gift is not exempt as such; a gift to anyone outside the exemption list pays the fee on the market value.

The exemptions are a fixed list, and the family ones are these: a conveyance between spouses; between domestic partners; between parent and child, stepparent and stepchild, parent and son-in-law or daughter-in-law, or grandparent and grandchild "for nominal or no consideration"; by will, descent, or survivorship; and by transfer on death. A transfer to a trust is exempt if a transfer from the grantor to the trust's beneficiary would itself be exempt. Exempt too are a deed for nominal or no consideration that confirms or corrects a recorded conveyance, a partition, a deed solely to provide or release security for a debt, a deed of property worth $1,000 or less, and transfers between family-owned entities and their owners. A deed between siblings is not on the list and pays on the value. A sale to a relative pays on the price, including any mortgage the relative takes over.

Step 9: Record the Deed and Pay the Fee

Take or mail the acknowledged or authenticated deed, with the transfer return receipt and the fees, to the register of deeds of the county where the property is located. The recording fee is set by state statute and is the same in every county: $30 "for recording any document entitled to be recorded," whatever its length. The register enters the transfer fee paid, or the exemption cited, on the face of the deed, endorses the date, hour, and minute, assigns the document number, records it, and returns it to the address on the first page. Keep the recorded deed with the property's papers.

Wisconsin also lets an owner name a transfer on death beneficiary. The owner records a document that names the owner, names the beneficiary, and states that the transfer is effective only on the owner's death, using the words "transfer on death" or "TOD" after the owner's name. The designation may be on the deed that conveys the property to the owner or in a later recorded document. It is not effective unless it is recorded before the owner dies, and recording it is exempt from the transfer fee and needs no transfer return. Where the property is marital property, both spouses sign the designation. That document, not a quitclaim deed, is the one Wisconsin 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 Wisconsin quitclaim deed?

With the register of deeds of the county where the property is located. Every county has one, listed on the county's website. A conveyance that is not recorded is void as against a later good-faith purchaser for value from the same grantor whose conveyance is recorded first, so record it promptly.

Does my spouse have to sign a Wisconsin quitclaim deed?

For the homestead, yes. A conveyance that alienates any interest of a married person in a homestead is not valid unless each spouse signs it or joins by a separate conveyance, whichever name is on the title, and the rule cannot be waived. A deed between the spouses themselves is the exception. For other real estate, Wisconsin's marital property law gives each spouse a half interest in marital property, and while a spouse may convey marital property held in that spouse's name alone, the other spouse keeps remedies against them, so having both spouses sign avoids the question.

Do I owe the Wisconsin transfer fee on a quitclaim deed to a family member?

Not between spouses, or between parent and child, stepparent and stepchild, parent and child-in-law, or grandparent and grandchild for nominal or no consideration. Those are on the exemption list, along with a transfer to a trust whose beneficiary would be exempt. The deed must cite the exemption subsection on its face, and the transfer return is still filed. A deed to a sibling, a niece, or a friend is not exempt, even as a gift, and pays 30 cents per $100 of the market value.

What is the Real Estate Transfer Return?

The form the Department of Revenue prescribes for every conveyance but a transfer on death designation, filed electronically on the Department's system and signed by both grantor and grantee, stating the value, the fee, and the exemption claimed. The receipt goes to the register of deeds with the deed, and the register may not accept a conveyance for recording without a completed return and the fee. The Department may audit the return for four years and penalizes an understated value or a wrongly claimed exemption.

How do two owners get survivorship on a Wisconsin deed?

By expressing a joint tenancy. Two or more persons named as owners are tenants in common, with separate shares, unless the deed expresses an intent to create a joint tenancy with words such as "as joint tenants," "jointly," "or the survivor," or "with right of survivorship." Spouses work the other way. Grantees who are married are joint tenants unless the deed expresses a tenancy in common, and a joint tenancy between spouses alone is survivorship marital property.

Can I get a Wisconsin quitclaim deed notarized online?

Yes. A Wisconsin notary public located in the state may take your acknowledgment by live audio-video while you are somewhere else, identifying you by personal knowledge, a credible witness, or two types of identity proofing, and recording the session. The certificate has to note that the act used communication technology. The location of the notary, not the signer, determines where the act took place. Confirm that the register of deeds accepts the result before you book.

Where do I get a Wisconsin quitclaim deed form?

Wisconsin prints no statutory quitclaim form, so any deed that identifies the parties, the land, and the interest, quitclaims the property, and is signed and acknowledged or authenticated gets the core wording right. A form written for no particular state fails on the first page. It has no three-by-three-inch recording space in the upper right corner, without which the register may not record it, no return address, no parcel number, no drafter's line, no exemption citation, and no line for the spouse's signature on a homestead. If you would rather start from something built for this state, our Quitclaim Deed Help page lists prepared forms and deed preparation services.