Colorado Quitclaim Deed
Colorado quitclaim deed (quit claim deed): transfers your interest with no warranty. Record it with the county clerk and recorder, file a TD-1000, and pay the documentary fee of one cent per $100.
Introduction
Colorado does not levy a real estate transfer tax. Instead, when you record a deed that conveys title, the county clerk and recorder collects a documentary fee of one cent for every $100 of consideration, with nothing due when the price is $500 or less (C.R.S. Section 39-13-102). That county clerk and recorder, the office Colorado uses in place of a separate register of deeds, is also where the deed is recorded. A quitclaim deed itself is a document that transfers whatever ownership interest you have in a piece of real estate to someone else, with no promise that your title is good or that you own anything. That is the key difference from a warranty deed, which does promise clear title and lets the grantee sue if the title turns out to be flawed. Because a quitclaim simply passes along whatever interest you hold, people use it for lower-risk transfers between parties who already trust each other: adding or removing a spouse after a marriage or divorce, moving a home into a living trust, or clearing up a possible claim on a title. In Colorado the person giving up the interest is the grantor and the person receiving it is the grantee. Colorado's statutory quitclaim form uses the operative words sell and quitclaim, and C.R.S. Section 38-30-113(1)(d) states that a deed in that form is a quitclaim deed without covenants of warranty that passes no after-acquired title of the grantor. You record the signed deed with the county clerk and recorder in the county where the property sits (C.R.S. Section 38-35-109), submitting a Real Property Transfer Declaration (form TD-1000) along with it. Notarizing the deed before you record is the safe, standard practice. Attorney review is available as an option before you sign.
Key Things to Know
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A quitclaim deed transfers only the interest you actually have. It passes whatever ownership you hold in the property to the grantee and makes no promise that the title is clear, or even that you own anything. A warranty deed, by contrast, guarantees the title, which is why a quitclaim is used mainly between people who already trust each other, such as family members or spouses.
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Record it with the county clerk and recorder, and include the grantee's legal address. Under C.R.S. Section 38-35-109 a Colorado deed is recorded in the office of the county clerk and recorder of the county where the property is situated, and for deeds dated after January 1, 1977 the deed must state the grantee's legal address. Recording protects the grantee under Colorado's race-notice priority rule, which favors the party who records first without notice of an earlier unrecorded deed.
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Colorado charges a documentary fee, not a transfer tax. When a deed conveying title is recorded, the county clerk and recorder collects a documentary fee of one cent for each $100 of consideration (C.R.S. Section 39-13-102). No fee is due when the consideration is $500 or less, and gifts, government transfers, and corrective deeds are exempt under C.R.S. Section 39-13-104.
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Colorado has a statutory quitclaim form with its own operative words. The form lives at C.R.S. Section 38-30-113(1)(d) and uses the phrase sell and quitclaim; a deed in that form passes no after-acquired title and carries no covenants of warranty. The older form statute, Section 38-30-116, was repealed by the General Assembly in 2019, so a current Colorado quitclaim should not cite it.
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Mind the margins, and you may be able to e-record. C.R.S. Section 30-10-406(3)(a) requires every recorded page to carry a top margin of at least one inch and left, right, and bottom margins of at least one-half inch, and the clerk may refuse a nonconforming document. The same statute (C.R.S. Section 30-10-406(1)) lets the clerk keep records electronically, and many Colorado county clerks accept e-recorded deeds through approved vendors, though availability varies by county.
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Sign the deed, notarize it as standard practice, and skip the witnesses. A Colorado deed must be a writing subscribed by the grantor (C.R.S. Section 38-10-106), and no statute requires witnesses. Colorado law only permits acknowledgment before a notary, and under C.R.S. Section 38-35-106 even an unacknowledged recorded deed gives notice, but the county clerk and recorder and title companies expect a notarized deed, so notarize before recording.
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Homestead can require both spouses to sign. Colorado is not a community-property state, and property covered only by the automatic homestead can be conveyed on the owner's signature alone (C.R.S. Section 38-41-202(3)). But if a written homestead declaration has been recorded, both spouses must sign the deed (C.R.S. Section 38-35-118). Common quitclaim uses include divorce transfers and moving a home into a living trust.
Key decisions before you file
Before you file a Quitclaim Deed in Colorado, a few decisions shape the document: which option to choose and what each one means. The Quitclaim Deed guide walks through them.
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Colorado Requirements for Quitclaim Deed
A Colorado deed must be a writing subscribed by the grantor (C.R.S. Section 38-10-106). Colorado law is permissive on notarization: a deed may be acknowledged before a notary public, and under C.R.S. Section 38-35-106 even an unacknowledged recorded deed still gives notice. In practice, notarize the deed before recording, because that is the standard the county clerk and recorder and title companies expect.
Colorado does not require witnesses to sign a deed. The statutory deed forms and execution provisions in C.R.S. Section 38-30-113 contain no witness requirement; grantor execution with a notary acknowledgment is all that is customary.
Record the signed deed with the county clerk and recorder of the county where the property is situated (C.R.S. Section 38-35-109(1)). Recording protects the grantee under Colorado's race-notice priority rule, and for deeds dated after January 1, 1977 the deed must state the grantee's legal address (C.R.S. Section 38-35-109(2)).
When you record a deed that conveys title, the county clerk and recorder collects a documentary fee (C.R.S. Section 39-13-102). The fee is one cent for each $100, or major fraction thereof, of the consideration. No documentary fee is due when the consideration is $500 or less.
Some transfers owe no documentary fee. C.R.S. Section 39-13-104 exempts a deed to or from a government body, a deed conveying title as a gift, and an instrument that confirms or corrects a previously recorded deed. A transfer for $500 or less is also fee-free under C.R.S. Section 39-13-102.
Colorado codifies a statutory quitclaim form at C.R.S. Section 38-30-113(1)(d), which uses the operative words sell and quitclaim. A deed in that form is a quitclaim deed without covenants of warranty that passes no after-acquired title of the grantor, so it carries no promise about the state of the title. The older form statute, Section 38-30-116, was repealed in 2019.
A conveyance document presented for recording must be accompanied by a Real Property Transfer Declaration (form TD-1000) under C.R.S. Section 39-14-102(1)(a). Either the grantor or the grantee signs it. The clerk does not record the declaration; it is transmitted to the county assessor to report the sale price.
Colorado is not a community-property state, and property protected only by the automatic homestead may be conveyed on the owner's signature alone (C.R.S. Section 38-41-202(3)). But if the owner or spouse has recorded a written homestead declaration, both spouses must sign the deed to convey or encumber the property (C.R.S. Section 38-35-118(1); Section 38-41-202(4)).
Frequently Asked Questions
A quitclaim deed is a deed that transfers whatever interest you have in Colorado real estate to someone else, without any warranty that the title is good. It is often typed as a quit claim deed. Colorado's statutory form uses the words sell and quitclaim, and C.R.S. Section 38-30-113(1)(d) confirms it passes no after-acquired title and carries no covenants of warranty. You receive only the interest the grantor actually holds, if any.
The difference is the promise about title. A Colorado warranty deed guarantees that the grantor owns the property and that the title is clear, and the grantee can sue if that turns out to be false. A quitclaim deed makes no such promise. C.R.S. Section 38-30-113(1)(d) describes the quitclaim as a deed without covenants of warranty that passes no after-acquired title, so it simply releases whatever interest the grantor has.
In practice, yes, you should notarize it. Colorado law is permissive: C.R.S. Section 38-30-113(2) says a deed may be acknowledged, and C.R.S. Section 38-35-106 provides that even an unacknowledged recorded deed still gives notice. No statute voids an unnotarized deed. But the county clerk and recorder and title companies expect a notarized deed, so acknowledging it before a notary public before recording is the safe, standard path.
You record it with the county clerk and recorder in the county where the property is located, under C.R.S. Section 38-35-109. Recording gives public notice and protects the grantee under Colorado's race-notice priority rule. The deed must state the grantee's legal address, and you must submit a Real Property Transfer Declaration (form TD-1000) with it.
You pay the county clerk and recorder's recording fee plus a documentary fee. The documentary fee is one cent for each $100, or major fraction thereof, of the consideration (C.R.S. Section 39-13-102). No documentary fee is due when the consideration is $500 or less, and gifts, government transfers, and corrective deeds are exempt under C.R.S. Section 39-13-104.
Often, yes. C.R.S. Section 30-10-406(1) lets the county clerk and recorder keep records electronically, and many Colorado counties accept e-recorded deeds through approved third-party vendors. Availability and the accepted vendors vary by county, so check with the county clerk and recorder where the property is located. Whether you record on paper or electronically, the deed still must meet the margin rules in C.R.S. Section 30-10-406(3)(a) and be accompanied by the TD-1000 declaration.
Yes, and it is common. One spouse can quitclaim their interest to the other to carry out a divorce settlement. Colorado is not a community-property state, so property covered only by the automatic homestead can be conveyed on the owner's signature alone. But if a written homestead declaration has been recorded, both spouses must sign the deed (C.R.S. Section 38-35-118).
Yes. Under C.R.S. Section 39-14-102, any conveyance document presented for recording must be accompanied by a Real Property Transfer Declaration, form TD-1000, signed by either the grantor or the grantee. The county clerk and recorder does not record the declaration itself; it is transmitted to the county assessor to report the sale price. A gift or a transfer for no consideration still requires the declaration.