If you want to transfer a real estate property, or your ownership interest in one, to someone else, you do not need to hire a lawyer. Giving your son or daughter a house is not a complex, risky legal process, but lawyers will charge you for it as if you are trying to accomplish a business merger. If you need to transfer property to a person or entity through a quitclaim deed, you should still have this document professionally prepared. The best person to prepare quitclaim documents in California is a non-attorney legal document assistant; unlike paralegals, legal document assistants are professionally qualified to work independently of lawyers and law firms.
Why do People Use Quitclaim Deeds?
California law recognizes two types of deeds for transferring ownership of real estate property. A grant deed (known as a warranty deed in many other states) means that you own the property outright and it is free of liens; in other words, you have “good title.” A quitclaim deed, by contrast, contains no such claim to good title. Therefore, quitclaim deeds are the only option for transferring your interest in a property of which you are a partial owner or for transferring ownership of a property with liens. In practice, these are some common scenarios in which people these documents:
- A parent giving the property to his or her son or daughter
- A grandparent giving the property to his or her grandchild
- One spouse giving up his or her share of ownership of the marital home as part of the division of property in a divorce
- The property’s owner transferring it to a trust
- The property’s owner transferring it to an LLC
- Transferring special interests in a piece of land, such as minerals, oil, or gas, without transferring ownership of the land itself
The Risks of Acquiring an Asset Through a Quitclaim Deed
It is important to understand certain terms that address real property transfers. In a quitclaim deed, the transferring owner is the grantor, and the new owner is the grantee. After receiving the property, the grantee might discover that there are liens on the property, or even that the grantor never legally owned the property. One of the provisions of the deed is that the grantor and grantee cannot sue each other to resolve disputes over the property. Therefore, acquiring property through a quitclaim deed is risky, so most are between people who are sure they can trust each other, such as close family members.
Choose A People’s Choice for Accurate, Affordable Quitclaim Deed Preparation
Since quitclaim deeds are often part of a gift exchange between family members, there is no need to involve lawyers. The best way to prepare your quitclaim deed at a reasonable price is to have a registered legal document assistant prepare it for much less money than a lawyer. A People’s Choice provides legal document preparation services by a non-attorney legal document assistant registered in California. We can help prepare a variety of title and real estate documents such as quitclaim deeds. Call us today at 800-747-2780.
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