To file a Colorado quitclaim deed, you prepare the deed using the state’s statutory form, have the grantor sign it in front of a notary, and then record it with the County Clerk and Recorder in the county where the property is located, along with a completed Real Property Transfer Declaration (TD-1000) and payment for the recording and documentary fees.1Justia. Colorado Code 38 Title 38 Article 30 Section 38-30-113 – Deeds A quitclaim deed transfers whatever interest the grantor holds without any warranty about the state of the title, so it works best between people who already trust each other.
What Goes on the Deed
Colorado provides a statutory form, and small errors in the required fields can cloud the title or get the deed rejected at recording.1Justia. Colorado Code 38 Title 38 Article 30 Section 38-30-113 – Deeds You need:
- Full legal names and mailing addresses of the grantor (transferring) and grantee (receiving).
- The consideration exchanged. For gifts, drafters typically use language like “ten dollars and other good and valuable consideration.”
- The property’s full legal description, copied exactly from the current deed or pulled from the county assessor’s records. A street address is not a legal description.
- Vesting language if there is more than one grantee. “Joint tenants with right of survivorship” sends the deceased owner’s share automatically to the surviving owner. “Tenants in common” gives each owner a separate share that passes through their own estate.
Colorado also requires specific page margins on any recorded document: at least one inch at the top, and at least half an inch on the left, right, and bottom. A clerk can refuse a deed that doesn’t meet those margins.2Justia. Colorado Code 30 Title 30 Article 10 Section 30-10-406 – County Clerk and Recorder Duties
Notarizing the Deed
The deed has to be acknowledged before a notary public before it can be recorded.3Justia. Colorado Code 38 Title 38 Article 35 Section 38-35-101 – Acknowledgments Only the grantor signs. The grantor appears in person, shows valid government-issued photo ID, and signs in the notary’s presence. The notary then completes the acknowledgment certificate, stamps it, and signs.
The notary is not reviewing the document for you. Their job is limited to confirming identity and witnessing the signature.
Colorado caps notary fees at $15 per document for in-person notarization and $25 for electronic or remote notarization.4Justia. Colorado Code 24 Title 24 Article 21 Section 24-21-529 – Notary Fees A mobile notary who comes to you commonly adds a separate travel fee on top of the statutory maximum.
Recording the Deed
Take the notarized deed to the County Clerk and Recorder in the county where the property sits. Recording puts the transfer on the public record; until it’s recorded, a later buyer who has no notice of your transfer could end up with a competing claim.
Bring the following:
- The original, notarized deed.
- A completed TD-1000 (Real Property Transfer Declaration).
- Payment for the recording fee and any documentary fee owed.
Colorado recording fees are set by statute as a flat fee per document rather than a per-page charge; check with your county clerk for the exact amount, since surcharges can vary. Most county clerks accept documents in person or by mail.5City and County of Denver. Record Documents Some counties also offer electronic recording through approved e-recording vendors.6El Paso County Clerk and Recorder. Recording Document Process After recording, the clerk stamps the original with a reception number and date and mails it to the return address you specify.
Fees You’ll Pay
If the total consideration for the transfer exceeds $500, Colorado charges a documentary fee of one cent per $100 of the purchase price (or major fraction of $100).7Justia. Colorado Code 39 Title 39 Article 13 Section 39-13-102 – Documentary Fee Imposed On a $350,000 transfer, that’s $35.
Gift transfers are exempt. If you’re quitclaiming property to a family member or into a trust for no consideration, no documentary fee is owed, but you have to claim the exemption when you present the deed for recording.8Justia. Colorado Code 39 Title 39 Article 13 Section 39-13-104 – Exemptions
Every recorded transfer must include a TD-1000. The form tells the county assessor the property location, transfer date, and sale price so the property can be valued correctly for tax purposes.9Colorado Division of Real Estate. Real Property Transfer Declaration Instructions (TD-1000) Either the grantor or the grantee can sign it. Skip it, and if you don’t return it within 30 days of the assessor’s notice, the assessor can impose a penalty of $25 or 0.025% of the sale price, whichever is greater. The penalty can repeat every year until you comply.10Colorado State Document. Real Property Transfer Declaration (TD-1000)
Before You File: What a Quitclaim Deed Won’t Fix
Filing the deed changes who owns the property. It changes nothing else, and this is where people get burned, especially in divorce.
A quitclaim deed does not remove anyone from the mortgage. If both spouses signed the original note, both remain personally liable after one signs away their ownership. The lender doesn’t care who’s on title; it cares who signed the loan. If the spouse who kept the house stops paying, the lender can still pursue the other spouse. The only way to sever mortgage liability is for the spouse keeping the property to refinance in their name alone. A divorce decree ordering one spouse to pay does not bind the lender.
Federal law does at least prevent certain transfers from triggering a lender’s due-on-sale clause: transfers between spouses, transfers adding a spouse to title, and transfers into a living trust where the borrower stays a beneficiary are all protected, so the transfer itself won’t cause the loan to be called.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 12 U.S. Code 1701j-3 – Preemption of Due-on-Sale Prohibitions
Existing title insurance is another gap. Most owner’s title policies tie continuation of coverage to the insured’s liability under warranty covenants. A quitclaim deed carries no warranties, so the grantee generally won’t be covered under the grantor’s existing policy. If you want title protection as the new owner, plan on buying a new policy.
Tax and Medicaid Consequences to Weigh First
When the deed is a gift, two federal issues can outweigh the filing steps themselves.
The grantor can give up to $19,000 per recipient in 2026 without triggering any gift tax filing.12Internal Revenue Service. What’s New — Estate and Gift Tax Real estate almost always exceeds that, so the grantor must file IRS Form 709 for the year of the gift.13Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 709 Filing doesn’t necessarily mean owing tax. Amounts above the annual exclusion reduce the grantor’s lifetime gift and estate tax exemption, which is over $13 million in 2026. The reporting, though, is mandatory.
For the grantee, there’s no step-up to market value on a gift. You inherit the donor’s adjusted basis, called carryover basis. If a parent bought a house for $80,000 and quitclaims it to you when it’s worth $400,000, your basis is $80,000. Sell for $400,000, and $320,000 is taxable gain.14Internal Revenue Service. Publication 551 – Basis of Assets
Medicaid is the other trap. If the grantor applies for Medicaid long-term care benefits within 60 months of the transfer, the agency reviews all asset transfers during that look-back window. A gift or below-market transfer creates a penalty period of Medicaid ineligibility for nursing home care, calculated by dividing the uncompensated value transferred by the state’s average monthly cost of nursing facility care at the time of application.15Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 1396p – Liens, Adjustments and Recoveries, and Transfers of Assets Quitclaiming a $300,000 home to a child can translate into months or years of ineligibility if care becomes necessary within five years. Weigh this before recording if the grantor is elderly or in declining health.