Quitclaim deed
A quitclaim deed conveys whatever interest the grantor has in a property, with no warranty that they have any interest at all.
It is a useful instrument used in the right situations and a dangerous one used in the wrong ones.
What it promises#
Nothing.
Not that the grantor owns the property. Not that title is clear. Not that there are no liens. If the grantor held nothing, the deed conveyed nothing, and the grantee has no claim — because no promise was broken.
Where it is the right tool#
Divorce. One spouse conveying their interest to the other, where both know exactly what is being transferred.
Clearing an heir's interest. A sibling releasing their share in an inherited property.
Correcting an error. A misspelled name, a description defect, a missing recital — a corrective quitclaim from the original grantor fixes it.
Transfers between related parties, into a trust or an entity, where the parties understand the position and there is nothing to warrant.
In each case the interest being conveyed is known, and the absence of a warranty costs nothing.
Where it is the wrong tool#
An arm's-length purchase.
A buyer paying market value for a property and receiving a quitclaim deed has paid for a promise nobody made. If the seller's title was defective, the buyer's recourse is nothing.
Where a seller in an ordinary sale proposes a quitclaim, the question is why.
The mortgage misunderstanding#
The most damaging thing people believe about quitclaim deeds, and it recurs constantly in divorce.
A quitclaim deed does not remove you from the mortgage.
The deed transfers ownership. The mortgage note is a separate obligation, and only the lender can release someone from it.
So a spouse who quitclaims the house to the other in a divorce has given up the asset and kept the liability. If the remaining spouse stops paying, the foreclosure is against both of them, and the departing spouse's credit takes the damage on a house they no longer own.
Releasing the obligation requires a refinance in the remaining spouse's name, or a formal release from the lender. The divorce decree does not bind the lender.
In Minnesota distressed property#
Quitclaim deeds appear constantly in tangled title work, and mostly for good reasons — assembling scattered heirs' interests one at a time is exactly what they are for.
They also appear in foreclosure rescue arrangements, where a homeowner is asked to sign one. Minnesota's chapter 325N regulates that context specifically, and a timely cancellation under Minn. Stat. 325N.13 renders any deed executed beforehand void.
Anyone asked to sign a quitclaim deed to save their home should speak to a HUD-approved housing counsellor before doing so.