The short answer
Use a quitclaim for small jobs between people who already trust each other: taking an ex-spouse off the title, adding your spouse, fixing a name, moving the house into your own living trust. Don’t use one to hand your house to your kids while you’re alive. It’s usually the most expensive way to do it. A transfer-on-death deed or a revocable trust gets the house to them at your death instead, generally with a fresh tax basis (the value at your death, so the gain is figured from there, not from what you paid) and no gift for Medicaid to count.
The legal definition says the same thing in more words. Cornell’s Legal Information Institute defines a quitclaim as a document by which a grantor (the signer) “conveys his or her present interest, if any, in a given parcel of real property to a grantee without representing, covenanting, or warranting that the title is good.”
The two words that matter are “if any.” A quitclaim doesn’t check what the grantor owns. The Cook County Clerk describes it as passing “whatever interest they may have, if in fact any exists,” and says it offers the least protection of any deed type. That’s fine when you already know what the grantor owns, because you’re married to them or you are them. It’s a real problem with a stranger. A warranty deed is the opposite end: it promises the title is good. The full ladder of deed types and what each one promises is on our deed vs. title guide.
When a quitclaim deed fits, and when something else is cheaper
Most people looking this up have one of these seven jobs in mind. The form and the recording fee are the same for all seven. What changes is what the deed triggers later.
| The job | Does a quitclaim fit? | What it can trigger | The usual better tool |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taking an ex-spouse off the title | Does a quitclaim fit?Yes. It’s a common use. | What it can triggerThe spouse who signs stays on the loan. | The usual better toolThe same quitclaim, after the refinance or the lender’s release. More below. |
| Adding your spouse | Does a quitclaim fit?Yes, if it’s written right. It has to convey to you and your spouse and say how you’ll hold title. | What it can triggerWritten wrong, it gives the whole house away (why the DIY version goes wrong). Written right, a gift to a spouse who’s a US citizen needs no gift tax return. | The usual better toolThe same deed, checked by a real estate attorney before you record it. |
| Fixing a misspelled name or a wrong legal description | Does a quitclaim fit?Sometimes. | What it can triggerLittle, as long as the corrected deed matches what everyone meant. | The usual better toolYour recorder may want a correction deed instead. Ask before you file. |
| Moving the house into your own revocable living trust | Does a quitclaim fit?Yes. | What it can triggerVery little. The house keeps the date-of-death tax basis, and the lender can't call the loan while you stay the trust's beneficiary and live there. | The usual better toolCook County, Illinois, lists a separate deed in trust for this. Your trust lawyer will know the local form. |
| Handing the house to your child while you're alive | Does a quitclaim fit?Usually not. | What it can triggerA bigger capital gains bill when they sell, a gift Medicaid counts for five years, a house their creditors can reach, and a loan the lender can call unless they live there. | The usual better toolA transfer-on-death deed or a revocable living trust. The math below. |
| Buying a house from someone you don't know | Does a quitclaim fit?No. | What it can triggerNo promise that the seller owns it, or that they didn't leave a lien on it. | The usual better toolA warranty deed (a grant deed in California), with a title search and an owner's title insurance policy. |
| Keeping the house away from someone who's suing you | Does a quitclaim fit?No. | What it can triggerIn California a transfer made with intent to hinder or defraud a creditor is voidable as to that creditor, and a court can weigh whether you’d already been sued when you made it. | The usual better toolNo deed fixes this. Talk to a lawyer about the debt itself. |
The stranger row is about promises. Even a California grant deed at least promises the seller didn’t put a lien on the house themselves (Civil Code 1113). A quitclaim promises nothing. If an old lien does turn up after the debt was paid, a lien release is the document that clears it.
The last row comes from a real thread. Someone on r/RealEstate asked what a quitclaim deed even is, because a home inspector he was suing had moved his house to his mother. In California, a transfer made “with actual intent to hinder, delay, or defraud any creditor” is voidable as to that creditor (Civil Code 3439.04). The court can weigh whether the transfer went to an insider and whether the debtor had already been sued before it. A house signed over to Mom after the lawsuit meets the second. Other states have their own versions of the law.
Why a quitclaim to your kids usually costs more than it saves
Parents usually do this to make sure the house ends up with the kids. A quitclaim does that today, and the costs show up years later. Biggest first.
Your child takes your old tax basis
Basis is the number capital gains tax is measured from. When you give a house away, the person who receives it takes your adjusted basis, roughly what you paid plus improvements (IRS Publication 551). When someone inherits a house, the basis is generally its fair market value on the date of death. A house in your own revocable trust gets the inherited treatment too (26 U.S.C. 1014(b)(2)). A transfer-on-death deed generally gets it as well.
Say you bought the house for $150,000. It’s worth $450,000 when you die, and your child sells it for $450,000. If you quitclaimed it to them while you were alive, their basis is your $150,000 and they have a $300,000 taxable gain. If they inherited it, or it passed from your revocable trust, their basis is $450,000 and the gain is $0.
Medicaid looks back five years
When someone applies for Medicaid to cover nursing-home care, the state looks back 60 months at what they gave away. A house quitclaimed to a child inside that window can leave the parent ineligible for nursing-home coverage for a set number of months. The law carves out a son or daughter who lived in the home for at least two years right before the parent went into care and whose care kept the parent at home, and a sibling with an equity interest who lived there for at least a year.
The clock cuts both ways. A gift made more than 60 months before the application falls outside it, and some families give the house away early on purpose. That’s a plan you make with an elder law attorney, years ahead. A transfer-on-death deed or a revocable trust doesn’t start the clock at all. It doesn’t hide the house from Medicaid either: until you die, it’s still yours.
The house is now your child’s
Once the deed is recorded, your child owns it. Their creditors can reach it, it’s on the table in their divorce, and they can sell it or borrow against it without asking you. Getting it back takes a new deed with their signature on it.
You keep the mortgage, and the lender may call it
Signing the house over doesn’t move the loan. You keep the debt on a house you no longer own.
Federal law bars a lender from calling the loan just because a borrower’s child becomes an owner (12 U.S.C. 1701j-3(d)). But the regulation that applies it, 12 CFR 191.5, covers that transfer only on a home the borrower lives in, and only when the child lives there or will. A quitclaim to a child who lives across the country isn’t protected.
Gift tax, and property tax
The nominal $10 printed on many deeds doesn’t make it a sale. The IRS calls any transfer where “full consideration” isn’t received a gift. A house is usually worth more than the $19,000 annual exclusion for 2026, so you’d file Form 709. For almost everyone no tax is due: the gift just uses up part of the $15,000,000 basic exclusion for 2026.
A transfer to a child can also reset the property tax. In California, under Prop 19, the child keeps the parent’s assessment only if the house was the parent’s main home and the child moves in as theirs and files for the homeowners’ exemption within a year. Even then, any market value above the parent’s factored base-year value plus $1,044,586 is added to the child’s assessment (for transfers from February 16, 2025, through February 15, 2027). Your county assessor can tell you how your state treats it.
What to use instead
Two tools get the house to your kids at your death, not before it:
- A transfer-on-death deed. It names a beneficiary and does nothing until you die. You keep the house, and you can revoke it. California has one (Probate Code 5614, set to expire January 1, 2032), and Texas has had one since September 1, 2015 (Estates Code 114.051). Check whether your state does.
- A revocable living trust. It holds the house for you while you’re alive and passes it to the people you name. Putting the house into it is one of the jobs a quitclaim is fine for.
Before anyone signs a quitclaim to a child, spend an hour with an estate attorney. It costs less than the tax on that gain.
Quitclaim deeds in a divorce: you’re still on the loan
Signing your share of the house to your ex takes you off the title. It doesn’t take you off the loan. The CFPB puts it plainly: “taking your name off a home or vehicle title doesn’t take your name off the mortgage.” You’re generally responsible for the debt unless the lender released you or your ex refinanced and removed your name. If your ex stops paying, the lender can still come to you.
So get the refinance or the lender’s release done first, or in the same closing. Signing the quitclaim and hoping is how people end up owing on a house they gave away.
The divorce itself doesn’t let the lender call the loan. The same federal law, Garn-St Germain, bars that when a divorce decree or settlement makes the borrower’s spouse an owner (12 U.S.C. 1701j-3(d)(7)), as long as that spouse lives in the house.
What a quitclaim deed looks like on paper
A quitclaim looks like any other deed. Every field a deed carries is on our property deed page. These are the parts that make it a quitclaim, and the ones to check on a deed someone hands you:
- The granting words. Look for “quitclaims to.” The LA County consumer office’s sample quitclaim notes it “transfers any interest, known or unknown.” A California deed that says “grant” instead carries the two promises the law reads into that word, so it’s a grant deed.
- No warranty language. Nothing promises the title is good.
- A nominal price. Often “$10 and other good and valuable consideration.” It isn’t what the house is worth.
- One signature. The grantor signs. In LA County, the grantee doesn’t have to.
- A notary seal from the official who checked the signer’s identity.
- The recording stamp. The county stamps the deed when it records it and prints a document (instrument) number and a recording date. An unrecorded original has neither, so a copy with no stamp isn’t on the public record yet.
Texas works a little differently. A Texas deed doesn’t need a warranty at all (Property Code 5.022). But if it uses “grant” or “convey,” the law reads in two promises, that the grantor hasn’t already conveyed the property and that it’s free of encumbrances, unless the deed expressly says otherwise (5.023).
How much a quitclaim deed costs to record
The county sets the recording fee, and it’s small next to the costs above. Here’s what four counties charge:
| County | One-page quitclaim | What the total depends on |
|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles County, CA | One-page quitclaim$109 ($112 for two pages) | What the total depends onAssumes the deed isn't exempt from the $75 SB2 housing fee and isn't subject to transfer tax, which is when the $10 DA fraud fee applies. A $20 fee in lieu of a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report, and $3 a page for nonconforming pages, can come on top. |
| Cook County, IL | One-page quitclaim$107 | What the total depends onOne flat fee for deeds, in effect since April 1, 2024. Recording by mail with return adds $5. |
| Harris County, TX | One-page quitclaim$25 | What the total depends onPlus $4 for each additional page and $0.25 for each name beyond five. |
| Maricopa County, AZ | One-page quitclaim$30 | What the total depends onThe standard fee per document. The recorder notes some exceptions. |
Fees as posted on each county’s fee page in October 2026. A notary, a form, or an attorney’s drafting fee comes on top. The form is cheap. The mistake isn’t.
When someone forges a quitclaim on your house
The other way a quitclaim turns up on your house is as a forgery. FBI Boston warned in April 2025 that quitclaim deed fraud is on the rise, with fraudsters who “forge documents to record a phony transfer of property ownership.”
The recorder won’t catch it. California’s Department of Real Estate says the county recorder “is not responsible for detecting a fraudulent document.” And once a forged deed is on record, Cook County says it’s up to the homeowner to petition the court, at their own expense, to get it removed.
So the useful move is hearing about it early. The FBI’s advice is to monitor online property records and set up title alerts with your county clerk where they exist. Cook County’s Property Fraud Alert is free and calls or emails you any time a document is recorded against your property, or a loved one’s.
What to keep with a quitclaim deed
Keep these together, for good:
- The recorded copy, with the county’s stamp and instrument number.
- The paper that explains why it was signed: the divorce decree, or the trust it moved the house into.
- Form 709, if one was filed.
- After a gift, the giver’s purchase and improvement records. That’s the basis the new owner takes over, and without the papers nobody can prove it when they sell.
A deed is a keep-forever document: at least as long as you own the property, and ideally alongside the closing papers after a sale. The rest of the pile is in how long to keep important documents. If you’re sorting a parent’s papers, the end-of-life checklist covers what else to find.
Granite reads a deed as it lands: the deed type as printed, the grantor, the grantee, the county, and the instrument number on a recorded copy. When a street address is printed on it, the deed gets filed with that property. Search finds it again on every plan, long after anyone remembers which drawer it went in.