Maine quitclaim deed

What a quitclaim deed does in Maine

A quitclaim deed moves your interest in a property to someone else immediately, without guaranteeing that the title is clean. That makes it the wrong tool for a sale to a stranger and the right tool for transfers between people who already trust each other. Spouses, family members, a trust you control, or an LLC you own.

Maine's Short Form Deeds Act has two quitclaim forms. A "Quitclaim Deed with Covenant" promises to defend the title against claims arising through the grantor (33 M.R.S. § 765); a "Quitclaim Deed Without Covenant", also called a release deed, makes no promise at all (33 M.R.S. §§ 161, 775, form 4). Deedly's Maine quitclaim deed is the second kind, and its title says so.

The Maine law behind this deed

Start with 33 M.R.S. §§ 161, 775 if you want to read the statute's own language. The table below lists the main statutes behind the rules on this page.

When Maine property owners use a quitclaim deed

• Add a spouse to the deed after marriage
• Remove an ex-spouse after a divorce
• Transfer property into a living trust
• Move property into an LLC you own
• Transfer between family members
• Correct a misspelled name or a scrivener's error on a prior deed
• Clear a possible cloud on title

What Maine requires on the deed

These are the execution and formatting rules registries of deeds enforce. Getting any of them wrong is the usual reason a deed comes back in the mail.

How to complete and record it in Maine

1. 1Find your current deedYou need the legal description from it, word for word. If you can't find your copy, the Registry of Deeds can provide one, usually for a few dollars.
2. 2Identify everyone by full legal nameNames must match the current deed and government ID exactly, middle names included. A mismatch creates a gap in the chain of title that shows up years later at closing.
3. 3Complete the deedDeedly builds it with the wording, notary certificate, and 3-inch first-page margin used for Maine deeds.
4. 4Sign in front of a notaryBring photo ID. Wait to sign until you are in front of the notary: you have to appear before the notary anyway, and signing there leaves no question about who signed.
5. 5Complete Real Estate Transfer Tax Declaration (Form RETTD)Maine requires this alongside the deed, including for exempt transfers. Your filing packet explains which boxes apply to your situation.
6. 6Record it with the Registry of DeedsFile in the county where the property is located and pay the recording fee. Many offices in this state also accept e-recording, but usually only from approved submitters such as title companies. Keep the stamped receipt. It fixes your priority date.
7. 7Update insurance and tax recordsA change of ownership can affect your homeowner's policy, your homestead or senior exemption, and in some states the assessed value. Do this within a few weeks.

What it costs in Maine

Maine charges a real estate transfer tax of $2.20 per $500 of value up to $1,000,000 and $6.00 per $500 above that (any part of $500 counts as $500), half owed by the grantor and half by the grantee (36 M.R.S. § 4641-A). The registry collects the whole tax when the deed is recorded (36 M.R.S. § 4641-B), so agree between you who hands it over. A gift, or a deed stating only a nominal price (less than 20% of the property's adjusted assessed value, such as "$10"), is taxed on the property's market value unless an exemption applies (36 M.R.S. § 4641(3)).

Exemptions that commonly apply to a transfer like this: deeds between spouses, parent and child (stepchildren included), or grandparent and grandchild, when nothing is paid for the deed (36 M.R.S. § 4641-C(4)), deeds between spouses in a divorce (§ 4641-C(4)), deeds into your own revocable living trust, and back out of it to you (§ 4641-C(15)), deeds that only confirm or correct an earlier recorded deed, with nothing more paid (§ 4641-C(3)), and deeds that only change an entity's name or type, with no change in who owns it beneficially (§ 4641-C(19)). You have to claim the exemption. The recorder won't apply it for you.

Where to record it in Maine

Maine deeds are recorded with the Registry of Deeds in the county where the property sits, not where you live. There are 16 counties in Maine.

Many Maine recording offices accept e-recording through vendors such as Simplifile, CSC, or ePN. E-recording is generally open only to approved submitters such as title companies, attorneys, and lenders, so if you prepared the deed yourself, plan to record in person or by mail. Some offices accept filings from the public through those vendors; your county's website will say.

Recording offices we cover in Maine: Cumberland, York, Penobscot, Kennebec, Androscoggin, Aroostook, Oxford. See all Maine recording offices.

What a quitclaim deed does NOT do

Being honest about the limits is more useful than a sales pitch. Every one of these catches somebody out.

• It gives the new owner no warranty that the title is good. If a lien or a competing claim surfaces later, the grantee has no claim against the grantor under the deed.
• It does not remove anyone from the mortgage. The lender's loan is a separate contract; only a refinance or a release from the lender does that.
• It does not by itself avoid probate. The transfer happens now, not at death.
• A title insurer may decline to insure, or ask for more, when the chain of title rests on a quitclaim, especially one from an unknown party.

Quirks of Maine law that catch people out

• A Maine registry returns a deed unrecorded if its margins are not clean (1 3/4 inches at the top of page one, 3/4 inch at the sides, 1 1/2 inches across the bottom of the last page, with nothing written in them), and will not accept one unless each signer's name, and the notary's, is typed or printed under the signature (33 M.R.S. § 651-A). It also needs the Real Estate Transfer Tax Declaration and the tax, unless the deed is a transfer-on-death or corrective deed (36 M.R.S. §§ 4641-B, 4641-D), and the recording fee (about $40).
• Almost every Maine deed must be accompanied by a Real Estate Transfer Tax Declaration (Form RETTD), even when no tax is due: an exempt transfer enters its exemption code on the form. Title companies and lawyers file it online; you can fill in the form Maine Revenue Services publishes and hand it in with the deed. Transfer-on-death deeds and corrective deeds need none (36 M.R.S. § 4641-D).
• A deed between spouses, parent and child, or grandparent and grandchild is exempt from Maine's transfer tax only if nothing is paid for it (36 M.R.S. § 4641-C(4)). A family sale is taxed like any other, and siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins get no exemption.
• Maine's transfer tax is imposed half on the grantor and half on the grantee: $1.10 each per $500 of value up to $1,000,000, and $3.00 each per $500 above that (36 M.R.S. § 4641-A).
• Maine recognizes transfer-on-death deeds under its Probate Code (18-C M.R.S. § 6-401).

How to hold title in Maine

When two or more people take title in Maine and the deed says nothing more, the law presumes a tenancy in common, which means no automatic survivorship. If you want the survivor to take the whole property, the words have to be on the deed. Forms of co-ownership available in Maine: joint tenancy with right of survivorship and tenancy in common.