Real Estate 101: Other deed forms--quit-claim and survivorship

In earlier posts, I wrote about the difference between general warranty deeds and limited warranty deeds and about fiduciary deeds. However, there are a couple more deed options in the State of Ohio.


Probably the most well known of the other deeds is the quit-claim deed. This is the ‘I make no promises, you’re on your own’ deed. While general and limited warranty deeds provide a warranty on title to the grantee of some period of time, a quit-claim deed does not. The grantee is taking title ‘as is’ with no recourse back to the grantor if a problem with title to the property arises later. The quit-claim deed form is addressed in the Ohio Revised Code (ORC) at section 5302.11.

Another deed form is the survivorship deed. This form can be used when any interest in real property is being transferred to 2 or more persons. It creates a survivorship tenancy in the grantees, and upon the death of one of the grantees, vests that deceased grantee’s interest in the survivor or survivors, or the the survivor(s)’ separate heirs and assigns. A survivorship deed may include covenants for a general or limited warranty or exclude such warranties, as in a quit-claim deed. Typically you will see language as follows:

“__________ (marital status), of _________ County, for valuable consideration paid, grant(s), (include covenants in any), to ___________ (marital status) and _________ (marital status), for their joint lives, remainder to the survivor of them, whose tax mailing addresses are ______________, the following real property: ….”

The survivorship deed form is addressed at ORC section 5302.17.

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