How to Do a Quit Claim Deed in Utah: Recording, Mortgage, and Tax Risks

A quit claim deed in Utah transfers whatever ownership interest the grantor holds in real property to a grantee, with no promises that the interest is good, clear, or worth anything at all. The statutory form lives at Utah Code 57-1-13, the recording fee is a flat $40 at the county recorder’s office, and the deed must be signed, notarized, and filed in the county where the property sits.¹² Before you sign, though, understand what a quit claim deed cannot do: it cannot guarantee title, cannot remove you from a mortgage, and cannot protect the grantee from liens or competing claims.

What a Quit Claim Deed Actually Transfers

A warranty deed carries legal promises. The grantor guarantees they own the property, have the right to convey it, and will defend the grantee against later claims.³ Break any of those promises and the grantee can sue.

A quit claim deed strips those promises away. It hands over whatever the grantor has at the moment of signing, and if that turns out to be nothing, or nothing minus a stack of liens, the grantee has no legal claim against the grantor.¹ That is why quit claim deeds rarely show up in sales between strangers. They belong in transfers where the parties already know the state of the title.

When a Quit Claim Deed Fits the Situation

Most Utah quit claim deeds fall into a few recognizable patterns:

Divorce, where one spouse signs over their interest in the marital home to the other under a property settlement.
Estate planning, where the owner moves the property into their own revocable living trust to avoid probate.
Clearing a title defect, such as a misspelled name in prior records or an old claim from a previous owner that never got released.
Moving property from personal ownership into an LLC or partnership for liability reasons.
Adding or removing a co-owner, such as a parent adding an adult child, or siblings adjusting shares after inheriting together.

Each of these works because the grantee already knows what they are getting. A buyer at arm’s length almost never should.

What the Deed Must Contain

Utah Code 57-1-13 sets the statutory form. A valid quit claim deed needs:

The grantor’s full legal name and place of residence.
The grantee’s full legal name and place of residence.
Consideration. Even in a gift, deeds typically recite nominal consideration such as “ten dollars and other good and valuable consideration.”
A legal description of the property in the named Utah county. This is the metes-and-bounds or lot-and-block description, not the street address.
The grantor’s signature and date.

The statute itself does not require a tax parcel identification number, but Utah Code 17-21-20 lets each county recorder require one before accepting a document.⁴ Most Utah counties do. An error in the parcel number does not void the deed, but leaving it off when the county demands it will get your filing rejected at the counter.

Notarization

Between the grantor and grantee, the deed is valid without a notary. To record it, though, Utah Code 57-3-101 requires a certificate of acknowledgment from a notary public.⁵ The notary verifies the grantor’s identity and signs the certificate, and that is what makes the document eligible for recording.

Formatting the Recorder Will Accept

County recorders can reject documents that fail physical formatting rules under Utah Code 17-21-20.⁴ Before you print:

Use white paper, 8.5 by 11 inches, printed on one side.
Keep at least a one-inch margin on the left, right, and bottom.
Leave a 2.5-inch by 4.5-inch blank space in the upper right corner of the first page for the recorder’s stamps.
Keep a one-inch top margin on subsequent pages.
Print in black ink at no smaller than seven lines per vertical inch, roughly 10-point type.
Do not bind the pages continuously along any edge.

Water Rights Addendum

Utah Code 57-3-109 addresses water rights on any deed conveying fee simple title. The statute says the person submitting the deed “may also submit” a water rights addendum, so it is not strictly mandatory for the deed to be valid.⁶ Even so, many Utah county recorders expect it and will ask for it before processing your filing.

The form is short. It either lists the water rights being transferred by water right number or states that no water rights are included, and both parties sign. If the property has any associated water rights and you skip the addendum, you create the exact kind of ambiguity a quit claim deed is often used to eliminate.

Recording the Deed

Once the deed is signed, notarized, and formatted correctly, take it to the recorder’s office in the county where the property is located. The recording fee is $40 per instrument, with an added $2 for each property description beyond ten.² A typical single-parcel deed costs $40.

You can file in person, by mail with payment enclosed, or electronically through a third-party e-recording vendor, which charges its own service fee on top of the county’s. The recorder stamps the document and returns the original once processing is done.

An unrecorded deed is still binding between the grantor and grantee, but it does not give notice to anyone else.⁷ A later buyer or creditor searching the county records will not see the transfer, and they can end up with a competing claim. Record it.

The Mortgage Does Not Move With the Deed

This is where quit claim deeds cause the most damage. Signing a quit claim deed does not remove the grantor from the mortgage. The note is a separate contract with the lender. Deed the house to your brother while your name stays on the loan, and you still owe the debt on a house you no longer own.

Beyond that, most residential mortgages contain a due-on-sale clause allowing the lender to demand full repayment when the property changes hands. Federal law under the Garn-St. Germain Act blocks the lender from triggering that clause in specific situations, including:⁸

Transfers to a spouse or children of the borrower.
Transfers arising from divorce, legal separation, or a property settlement in which the borrower’s spouse becomes the owner.
Transfers into a revocable trust where the borrower remains a beneficiary.
Transfers on the death of a joint tenant or co-owner.

If your transfer does not fit one of those categories, the lender can legally accelerate the loan. Talk to the lender or a real estate attorney before signing anything on mortgaged property.

Gift Tax and the Carryover Basis Trap

When property moves through a quit claim deed for less than fair market value, the IRS treats the shortfall as a taxable gift. The 2026 annual gift tax exclusion is $19,000 per recipient.⁹ Real property almost always exceeds that, which means the grantor should file IRS Form 709 to report the gift.

Filing does not usually mean paying. The 2026 lifetime gift and estate tax exemption is $15,000,000, and most filers simply apply the excess against that amount and owe nothing immediately.¹⁰ Skipping the form entirely, though, can create problems later.

The bigger tax problem hits the grantee. Under 26 U.S. Code 1015, the recipient of a gift takes the donor’s original cost basis, not the current market value.¹¹ If your parents bought a house for $80,000 in 1985 and quit claim it to you when it is worth $400,000, your basis is $80,000. Sell for $400,000, and you owe capital gains tax on $320,000. Inherited property gets a stepped-up basis at fair market value instead, which for high-value transfers can save the grantee tens of thousands. Before quit claiming a family home, talk to a tax professional.

What the Grantee Absorbs

Because a quit claim deed carries no warranties, every problem in the title becomes the grantee’s problem. Outstanding liens, boundary disputes, undisclosed easements, and competing ownership claims all pass through to the new owner with no recourse against the grantor.

Existing title insurance can also be affected. Some policies end coverage when the insured owner transfers the property, and courts have held that a quit claim deed can trigger that termination even when the transfer goes into the owner’s own trust. A warranty or grant deed carries implied warranties that may preserve coverage in the same situation.

If you are receiving property by quit claim deed and you are not certain the title is clean, pay for a title search before the deed is signed. A title company can find liens and defects that would otherwise land on you the day you record. For transfers among family members who already know the property’s history, that may be more than needed. For anything else, it is cheap protection against a very expensive surprise.

1
Utah Legislature. Utah Code 57-1-13 – Form of Quitclaim Deed
2
Utah Legislature. Utah Code 17-21-18.5 – Fees of County Recorder
3
Utah Legislature. Utah Code 57-1-12 – Form of Warranty Deed – Effect
4
Utah Legislature. Utah Code 17-21-20 – Recorder May Impose Requirements on Documents
5
Utah Legislature. Utah Code 57-3-101 – Certificate of Acknowledgment
6
Utah Legislature. Utah Code 57-3-109 – Water Rights Addenda
7
Utah Legislature. Utah Code 57-3-102 – Record Imparts Notice
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 12 U.S. Code 1701j-3 – Preemption of Due-on-Sale Prohibitions
9
Internal Revenue Service. Gifts and Inheritances
10
Internal Revenue Service. What’s New – Estate and Gift Tax
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 1015 – Basis of Property Acquired by Gifts and Transfers in Trust