If you are in the market of purchasing or selling a home, it is likely that you will come across many different documents of a wide variety, each of these will likely have different uses, functions, and names associated with it. When selling or buying a home two documents that are misunderstood the most are called quit claim deed and warranty deed. People tend to believe that both forms are exactly alike, well I am here to tell you differently.
Warranty Deed
This document is a deed that is presented to you by the seller and can be used in a wide variety of transactions that involve sales. This warranty basically tells you that the property being sold is indeed owned by the seller and that there are not any types of liens placed upon it, essentially saying it is free and clear. This assures the buyer that the seller has all legal rights in transferring ownership to them without any type of holdings on it. This means that there are no claims that could be made by anyone that may include financial institutions or otherwise, on this property. With the warranty deed, the buyer is protected by the court of law if the claims should prove to be false or the event occurs when someone does have the ability to place claim on the property. The law states that in either of these events, the buyer would be entitled to compensation of some form. It is seldom that the warranty deed will not be coupled with an insurance policy on the title, so the buyer is assured a free and clear title.
Quit Claim Deed
This deed is on the opposite end of the spectrum from the warranty deed. The quit claim deed, is generally presented to you by a seller who likely does not personally own the property in question, however, they do have some responsibility over it. There are a variety of reasons that a quit claim deed can be used this can include, when the actual owner has died but has left the property in question to a friend or family member. Additionally, it can be used when a couple has gotten married and the spouse wants to include the other party on the title. This type of deed does not offer the same type of assurances to the buyer as the warranty deed does, it is for this reason that this is typically used when the sale will occur within the family.
