New York Quitclaim Deed
A New York quitclaim deed (or quit claim deed) transfers your interest with no warranty of title. Record it with the county clerk or NYC City Register.
Introduction
A quitclaim deed 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 even that you own anything at all. 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. A quitclaim simply passes along whatever interest you hold, so people use it for lower-risk transfers between people who already trust each other: adding or removing a spouse after a marriage or divorce, moving a home into a trust, or clearing up a possible claim on a title. In New York the person giving up the interest is the grantor (the party of the first part) and the person receiving it is the grantee (the party of the second part). New York law does not imply any covenant of title in a conveyance (N.Y. Real Property Law Section 251), and no greater estate passes than the grantor could lawfully convey (Section 245), which is exactly what a quitclaim does. To be recordable the deed must be acknowledged before a notary public; no witnesses are required. You then record it with the county clerk where the property sits, or with the New York City Register in the five boroughs. Attorney review is available as an option before you sign.
Key Things to Know
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A quitclaim deed (often typed as a quit claim 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 trust each other.
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Record it with the county clerk. A New York conveyance is recorded in the office of the clerk of the county where the property is located (N.Y. Real Property Law Section 291). In New York City the Office of the City Register records deeds for the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens through ACRIS, while Staten Island documents are recorded with the Richmond County Clerk.
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You must have the deed acknowledged before a notary. To be recorded, a New York quitclaim deed must be acknowledged by the person who signed it, typically before a notary public (N.Y. Real Property Law Sections 291 and 306). Acknowledgment is what makes the deed recordable.
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No witnesses are required. New York does not require witnesses to sign a deed. A subscribing witness is only the statutory alternative route to recording when a signature is not acknowledged, so in practice notarization is the operative formality.
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Pay the real estate transfer tax. New York imposes a state transfer tax of $2 for each $500 of consideration (or fractional part) when the consideration is more than $500, and the grantor pays it (N.Y. Tax Law Sections 1402 and 1404). A residence sold for $1 million or more also triggers a 1 percent mansion tax paid by the buyer (Section 1402-a). New York City property carries a separate city transfer tax as well.
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File Form TP-584 and Form RP-5217 before recording. New York requires a real estate transfer tax return (Form TP-584, or TP-584-NYC in the city) and a real property transfer report (Form RP-5217) to be filed with the recording officer before the deed can be recorded (N.Y. Tax Law Section 1409; Real Property Law Section 333).
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New York offers an optional statutory quitclaim form. Real Property Law Section 258 provides a short-form statutory quitclaim deed (Schedule G, Form D for an individual), but other forms are also lawful. Common quitclaim uses include divorce transfers, adding or removing a spouse, and moving a home into a trust; New York is not a community-property state and does not require a non-owner spouse to sign the deed.
Key decisions before you file
Before you file a Quitclaim Deed in New York, 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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New York Requirements for Quitclaim Deed
To record a New York quitclaim deed the deed must be acknowledged by the person who executed it, typically before a notary public (N.Y. Real Property Law Sections 291 and 306). Acknowledgment, certified by the notary, is what makes the conveyance recordable.
New York does not require witnesses to sign a deed. A subscribing witness is only the statutory alternative route to recording ('proved') when the grantor's signature is not acknowledged, so in practice a notary acknowledgment is the operative formality (N.Y. Real Property Law Section 291).
Record the signed, acknowledged deed with the clerk of the county where the property is located (N.Y. Real Property Law Section 291). In New York City the Office of the City Register records deeds for the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens through ACRIS, while the Richmond County Clerk records deeds for Staten Island.
New York imposes a state real estate transfer tax of $2 for each $500 of consideration, or fractional part, when the consideration exceeds $500, and the grantor pays it (N.Y. Tax Law Sections 1402 and 1404). Consideration is the value given for the transfer. New York City property carries a separate city transfer tax as well.
When a residence is conveyed for $1 million or more, New York adds a 1 percent mansion tax on the whole price, and the buyer (grantee) pays it (N.Y. Tax Law Section 1402-a). This is separate from and on top of the base transfer tax the grantor owes.
A transfer tax return (Form TP-584, or TP-584-NYC for city property) must be filed with the recording officer before the deed can be recorded (N.Y. Tax Law Section 1409). The recording officer also cannot accept the deed without a real property transfer report (Form RP-5217) (N.Y. Real Property Law Section 333).
New York provides an optional statutory short-form quitclaim deed at Real Property Law Section 258 (Schedule G, Form D for an individual; Schedule H, Form DD for a corporation). Its operative words are 'remise, release, and quitclaim.' Other forms are expressly lawful, so you are not required to use the statutory form.
New York is not a community-property state, and no New York statute requires a non-owner spouse to join in or sign a deed of the owner's property. The homestead provision (N.Y. CPLR 5206) only exempts a home from money judgments; it imposes no deed-signature requirement.
Frequently Asked Questions
A quitclaim deed is a deed that transfers whatever interest you have in New York real estate to someone else, without any warranty that the title is good. It is often typed as a quit claim deed. Under N.Y. Real Property Law Section 251 no covenant of title is implied, and Section 245 says no greater estate passes than the grantor could lawfully convey. It simply passes along the interest you hold, if any.
The difference is the promise about title. A New York warranty deed guarantees that the grantor owns the property and that the title is clear, and the grantee can sue on those covenants if that turns out to be false. A quitclaim deed makes no such promise. New York law implies no covenant in a conveyance (Real Property Law Section 251), so a quitclaim transfers only whatever interest the grantor actually holds, with no warranty of title.
Yes. To record a quitclaim deed in New York the deed must be acknowledged by the person who signed it, typically before a notary public (N.Y. Real Property Law Sections 291 and 306). Without a proper acknowledgment the county clerk or City Register will not accept the deed for recording. New York does not require witnesses.
You record it with the county clerk of the county where the property is located (N.Y. Real Property Law Section 291). In New York City the Office of the City Register records deeds for the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens through ACRIS, and the Richmond County Clerk records deeds for Staten Island. Recording protects the grantee against a later good-faith purchaser under New York's race-notice rule.
New York's state real estate transfer tax is $2 for each $500 of consideration, or fractional part, when the consideration is more than $500, and the grantor pays it (N.Y. Tax Law Sections 1402 and 1404). A residence sold for $1 million or more also carries a 1 percent mansion tax paid by the buyer (Section 1402-a). New York City imposes its own separate transfer tax on city property.
Often yes. New York Tax Law Section 1405 exempts conveyances of real property without consideration and not in connection with a sale, including bona fide gifts, along with other listed conveyances such as those merely confirming or correcting a prior deed. You still generally file a transfer tax return (Form TP-584) claiming the exemption, and the real property transfer report (Form RP-5217), before recording.
No. Recording your quitclaim deed with the county clerk, or the New York City Register through ACRIS, transfers whatever ownership interest you hold, but it does not reach the lender's mortgage lien on the property. If your name is on the note, you remain personally liable for the loan even after you quitclaim your interest away. Only the lender can release you, typically by refinancing the loan or signing a formal release.
No. New York implies no covenant in any deed (RPL 251), and under RPL 245 you can pass no greater estate than the grantor actually holds, so a quitclaim, the statutory short form in RPL 258 Schedule G, clears no liens and guarantees no title. Because New York is a race-notice state (RPL 291), priority turns on recording first in good faith. A title search and title insurance provide the protection a quitclaim does not.