Couple looks to transfer house title to daughter

Q: Can you explain about the different types of deeds? My husband, daughter and I are all on a title together. The house has been fully paid off and my husband and I want my daughter to have the house, so we no longer want to be on title. What document to we use to get us off the title to the property? We have read the deed we got when we bought the property and it’s really confusing. A lot of legal mumbo-jumbo. Somebody told us about quitclaim deeds. Is that what we use or is there something else? Thanks in advance.

A:  Transferring title to a property appears to be perplexing, given the volume of legal statutes and case decisions that affect property ownership in California. But for the most part, it’s really not that hard.

First, we have to get past some of the terminology.

Transferring title can mean a couple of things.

The term “title” typically means something like, “the person who appears to own the land” or “the guy whose name is on the deed at the recorder’s office.”

There are many instances when the person who “appears” to own the land really doesn’t, which is the subject of many lawsuits, but that’s not the norm.

Usually the name, or names, that are on the deed at the county recorder’s office are the true owners, as I presume is true for you.

So the simple definition of transferring title is: giving ownership of the land from one person to another.

Pretty simple so far.

A basic principle of real estate law, and one that constantly confuses both student Realtors and lawyers, is that real estate ownership isn’t just one thing. It’s accurately described as a bundle of sticks, with each stick being a particular ownership “thing,” or more properly “right.”

You may think you own your home. But you don’t. At least not all of it.

There are easements running through your property. An easement means someone else has certain sticks (rights) to your land.

For example, the city may have an easement across your front yard, maybe 2 feet from the curb, for landscaping purposes.

I remember my surprise 35 years ago when I bought my first brand new house in Suisun City. After we moved in, the city came by and planted a tree in the middle of my front yard. When I complained, they explained the tree was planted in a city easement and that I couldn’t remove it.

They were right.

PG&E likely has easements through your backyard, under which they have buried utilities. If they need to get to them they can just walk into your yard and start digging. They own that particular stick in the bundle, and you don’t.

It’s likely you don’t own any oil, natural gas or gold, for that matter, that is buried under your yard.

All real estate is like that.

Different deeds promise to deliver different things to a buyer, or your daughter in this case.

A grant deed, which is typically what you get when you buy a house, carries a guarantee that what the deed says you’re getting is actually what you are getting.

Consequently, it will exclude all the easements, liens and other sticks from the bundle that someone else owns. That makes the deed look pretty complicated and intimidating.

A quitclaim deed carries no promises. It simply says that whatever rights I have to the property, if any, are now yours. But I, the seller, ain’t guaranteeing nothin’.

If I give you a quitclaim deed to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, it’s a perfectly valid deed. Assuming it’s properly notarized; you can go downtown and record it.

But before you demand free admission, you had better make sure I actually owned it when I gave you the deed. Which, hint-hint, I didn’t.

Still, you can’t sue me because I didn’t promise you anything.

In your case, all you want to do is get your names off of the property so your daughter owns the whole thing. I presume she’s not expecting you to guarantee your ownership.

A quitclaim deed will work very nicely for that.

And it’s easy to draft since you don’t have to worry about properly excluding easements, mineral rights, etc. It’s pretty fool-proof.

You can get a simple quitclaim deed off the Internet or from a stationary supply store.

You want to make sure you get the Assessor Parcel Number (APN) for the property correct, since that’s how it will be recorded.

But other than that, it’s pretty simple and should adequately accomplish what you want to do.

Tim Jones is a real estate attorney in Fairfield. If you have any real estate questions you would like answered in this column you can contact him at SolanoScene@TJones-Law.com.

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Posted by Tim Jones on Jan 28 2012.

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