South Carolina Quitclaim Deed Form

What is a South Carolina Quitclaim Deed Form?

A South Carolina property owner transfers an interest in real estate to a new owner by executing and recording a written deed.¹ A South Carolina quitclaim deed is a type of deed that conveys whatever interest the current owner can lawfully convey with no guaranty as to the quality of the transferred interest.² In other words, a South Carolina quitclaim deed transfers the owner’s entire right, title, and interest in the real estate with no covenants or warranty of title.³

Warranty of title is a guaranty—comprised of several promises called covenants of title—that the current owner stands behind the title to transferred real estate.⁴ A quitclaim deed offers no warranty of title—amounting to an as-is transfer of real estate. A new owner who receives real estate through a quitclaim deed bears all risk of problems with the property’s title—called title defects. Title defects potentially affecting a property could include unknown liens, an imperfect chain of title, or a third-party claim on some or all of the real estate.⁵

Other Names for a South Carolina Quitclaim Deed Form

South Carolina courts ordinarily call a deed that omits covenants or warranty of title a quitclaim deed.⁶ Quit claim deed is an acceptable alternate spelling typically found in older cases.⁷ Quitclaim and quit claim can also serve as verbs—meaning the act of transferring title with no warranty.⁸

The South Carolina Code uses quitclaim deed and, in one instance, non-warranty deed—two terms that effectively serve the same function in South Carolina.⁹ Non-warranty deed and the synonymous terms no warranty deed and deed without warranty are more common in the small minority of states—most notably, North Carolina and Texas—where title insurers disfavor quitclaim deeds.¹⁰

Quitclaim deeds frequently state that the current owner releases the real estate to the new owner, and release deed can be a synonym for quitclaim deed.¹¹ Release deed is relatively uncommon in South Carolina—though the South Carolina Supreme Court has used the term.¹²

How do South Carolina Quitclaim Deed Forms Relate to Other Forms of Deeds?

A South Carolina quitclaim deed form conveys real estate with no promises regarding the quality of the property’s title.¹³ The new owner receives whatever property interest the current owner can transfer but does not receive a guaranty that the title is free of defects or that the current owner holds a legitimate interest in the property.¹⁴

South Carolina’s other deed forms include covenants of title and therefore provide the new owner greater assurance of the transferred real-estate interest’s value.

• General Warranty Deeds. A South Carolina general warranty deed form transfers real estate with a comprehensive guaranty. The current owner guarantees good title and promises to defend the title if an unknown problem arises in the future.¹⁵ The warranty protects the new owner against defects arising at any point in the property’s history.¹⁶ A recipient of a general warranty deed who sustains financial loss caused by a title defect can file a breach-of-warranty lawsuit against the prior owner who executed the deed.¹⁷
• Special Warranty Deeds. A South Carolina special warranty deed form—sometimes called limited warranty deed—transfers property with limited warranty of title.¹⁸ The current owner guarantees a good, defect-free title, but the guaranty only covers defects that arose while the current owner owned the property.¹⁹ A title defect rooted in events that occurred before the current owner took title is outside the warranty. The current owner who executes a special warranty deed and the new owner who accepts it share the risk of unknown title defects.

South Carolina law recognizes other deed forms that serve specific functions and are not characterized by their warranty of title. A South Carolina deed of distribution—for example—formally transfers title to real estate from a deceased owner’s estate to an estate beneficiary.²⁰ A court-appointed personal representative executes a deed of distribution on the estate’s behalf in connection with estate-administration proceedings supervised by a probate court.

Common Uses of South Carolina Quitclaim Deed Forms

South Carolina property owners can use quitclaim deeds to transfer real estate for nominal consideration or alter a property’s title without affecting actual control or possession. A conveyance for fair market value—by comparison—is more often evidenced by a general warranty deed or special warranty deed giving the new owner greater assurance of the acquired title’s validity.

A property owner could use a quitclaim deed to:

• Transfer an individually owned property’s title to the owner and the owner’s spouse as joint tenants with right of survivorship;²¹
• Transfer a joint-tenancy interest in inherited real estate to the other joint tenant—giving the other joint tenant undivided title to the property;²²
• Transfer a property’s title to or from an LLC in which the property owner has a membership interest;²³
• Transfer a property’s title to a revocable trust formed by the owner as part of an estate plan;²⁴
• Transfer an interest in marital real estate to the other former spouse pursuant to an order apportioning marital property entered in a divorce case.²⁵

A quitclaim deed’s absence of covenants of title places all risk of title problems with the property’s new owner. The new owner can mitigate the risk of unknown title defects by purchasing a title insurance policy covering the property. An insurance company issuing a title policy charges a single premium payment and—in return—agrees to cover financial loss that results from a defective title or unknown lien on the property.²⁶

How to Create a South Carolina Quitclaim Deed

The South Carolina Code only recognizes quitclaim deeds indirectly and does not provide model language for quitclaim deeds. A property owner wishing to create a quitclaim deed can modify the basic framework provided in South Carolina’s statutory warranty deed form to exclude references to covenants or warranty of title.²⁷

South Carolina quitclaim deed forms use a different granting clause than general warranty or special warranty deeds.²⁸ Quitclaim deeds typically state that the current owner remises, releases, and forever quitclaims the real estate to the new owner. South Carolina law assumes a quitclaim deed conveys all interests the person executing the deed can lawfully convey—though the parties can modify a deed to transfer a lesser interest.²⁹

Quitclaim deeds must satisfy all of South Carolina’s general deed requirements, with one exception. Quitclaim deeds need not include a derivation clause identifying the source of the current owner’s title to the property.³⁰ Quitclaim deeds must follow South Carolina’s standards for—among other things—formatting, execution, and notarization of deeds.³¹ An improperly prepared quitclaim deed may be ineligible for recording or result in a defective conveyance and future problems with the property’s chain of title.³²

1. See S.C. Code §27-5-130(A); S.C. Code §30-7-10.
2. Mulherin-Howell v. Cobb, 608 S.E. 2d 587 (S.C. Ct. App. 2005).
3. Bennett v. Investors Title Ins. Co., 635 S.E. 2d 660 (S.C. Ct. App. 2006).
4. See Martin v. Floyd, 317 S.E.2d 133 (S.C. Ct. App. 1984); S.C. Code §27-7-10.
5. See S.C. Code §38-1-20(59).
6. Bennett v. Investors Title Ins. Co., 635 S.E. 2d 660 (S.C. Ct. App. 2006).
7. See, e.g., Martin v. Ragsdale, 50 S.E. 671 (S.C. 1905).
8. See, e.g., Hilton Head v. Donald, 651 S.E.2d 614 (S.C. Ct. App. 2007) (emphasis added) (“Developer did not have title to the Property at the time it quitclaimed the Property to the Association”).
9. See S.C. Code §30-5-35.
10. See Tex. Prop. Code §5.023 (implying specified warranties within a deed “unless the conveyance expressly provides otherwise”).
11. See, e.g., Kolze v. Hoadley, 200 U.S. 76 (1906).
12. See, e.g., Natl. Bank of Commerce v. Munn, 131 S.E. 432 (S.C. 1926).
13. Mulherin-Howell v. Cobb, 608 S.E. 2d 587 (S.C. Ct. App. 2005).
14. Bennett v. Investors Title Ins. Co., 635 S.E. 2d 660 (S.C. Ct. App. 2006).
15. See Martin v. Floyd, 317 S.E.2d 133 (S.C. Ct. App. 1984).
16. S.C. Code §27-7-10.
17. Morris v. Lain, 174 S.E.2d 590 (S.C. 1934).
18. Bennett v. Investors Title Ins. Co., 635 S.E. 2d 660 (S.C. Ct. App. 2006), citing Black’s Law Dictionary 1581 (7th ed. 1999).
19. Knotts v. Joiner, 59 S.E. 2d 850 (S.C. 1950).
20. S.C. Code §62-3-908.
21. S.C. Code §27-7-40(a).
22. S.C. Code §27-7-40(a)(v).
23. See S.C. Code §12-24-40(8); S.C. Code §33-44-301(a)(1).
24. See S.C. Code §62-7-401(a).
25. See S.C. Code §20-3-620; S.C. Code §20-3-680.
26. S.C. Code §38-1-20(59).
27. S.C. Code §27-7-10; S.C. Code §27-7-20.
28. Bennett v. Investors Title Ins. Co., 635 S.E. 2d 660 (S.C. Ct. App. 2006).
29. Mulherin-Howell v. Cobb, 608 S.E. 2d 587 (S.C. Ct. App. 2005); S.C. Code §27-5-130(A).
30. S.C. Code §30-5-35.
31. See S.C. Code §30-5-30; S.C. Code §27-7-10; S.C. Code Regs. §12-501.1; S.C. Code §30-5-35(a); S.C. Code §30-5-250.
32. See S.C. Code §30-7-10.