How to File a Quitclaim Deed in Georgia: Forms, PT-61, and Recording

To file a quitclaim deed in Georgia, prepare the deed with an accurate legal description of the property, have the grantor sign it in front of a notary public and one additional witness, complete the state’s PT-61 Real Estate Transfer Tax form online, and record the deed with the Clerk of the Superior Court in the county where the property is located. The statewide recording fee is $25. Most family transfers, divorce-related transfers, and transfers into a personal trust are exempt from Georgia’s transfer tax, but you still have to file the PT-61 to claim the exemption.

What You Need Before You Draft the Deed

Gather the full legal names and current mailing addresses of the grantor (the person giving up the interest) and the grantee (the person receiving it). You also need the property’s legal description, which is not the street address. The legal description identifies the land by lot, block, land lot, district, and county. You can pull it from the current deed on file with the county, or from your county tax assessor’s online records. The Georgia Department of Revenue maintains a directory of county property record sites, many of which run on the qPublic platform.

Match the legal description word-for-word to what appears in the existing deed. A transposed lot number or a missing land lot reference can create a title problem years later. When in doubt, work from the recorded deed itself rather than a tax bill.

Filling Out and Signing the Deed

Enter the grantor’s and grantee’s full legal names and addresses, and transcribe the legal description exactly as it reads in the source document. The deed must also state the consideration, meaning the value exchanged. In most quitclaim situations the consideration is nominal, and typical phrasing is “for ten dollars and other good and valuable consideration” or “for love and affection.” What you write here affects whether transfer tax applies.

Georgia requires every deed to be attested by two witnesses before it can be recorded. One must be an authorized official such as a notary public, a judge, a magistrate, or a clerk of the superior court.¹ The second can be any competent adult who is not a party to the deed.² In practice, the grantor signs in front of both a notary and one other witness, and the notary applies the official seal. Only the grantor has to sign; the grantee does not.

The PT-61 Transfer Tax Form

Georgia will not record any deed without a completed PT-61 Real Estate Transfer Tax form.³ File it electronically through the GSCCCA website at gsccca.org. The form asks for the property address, the parties’ names, the transaction date, and the sale price or value.

The transfer tax rate is $1.00 for the first $1,000 of value plus $0.10 for each additional $100 or fraction of $100.⁴ On a $250,000 transfer that works out to roughly $250. Most quitclaim transfers, however, are exempt. Georgia law exempts, among others:⁵

Deeds of gift, where no money or other valuable consideration changes hands.
Transfers of real estate between spouses in connection with a divorce.
Deeds of distribution by an executor, administrator, or trustee, provided there is no valuable consideration.
Transfers between an individual and a corporation, partnership, or LLC in which that individual holds a majority ownership interest.
Divisions of property among joint tenants or tenants in common where the only consideration is the division itself.

On the PT-61 form you select the appropriate exemption code, such as “Deed of Gift” or “Divorce Based Transfer,” and the system sets the tax to zero.⁶ You still enter the value and still file the form. Skipping the PT-61 on the theory that no tax is due will get the deed rejected at the clerk’s window.

Recording With the Superior Court Clerk

Bring the signed, notarized original deed and the completed PT-61 to the Clerk of the Superior Court in the county where the property sits.⁷ The statewide recording fee is $25 for each real estate instrument.⁸ If the transfer is not exempt, you pay the transfer tax at recording as well. Most offices take checks, and many accept credit or debit cards, but that varies by county.

You can file in person or by mail, and some counties accept electronic filings. If you mail your documents, include a self-addressed stamped envelope for the return of the recorded original. Clerks review filings for completeness before accepting them, so anything missing or improperly executed will come back with instructions on what needs to be corrected.

After the Deed Is Recorded

Once accepted, the clerk stamps the deed as filed and assigns it a deed book and page number, entering it into the permanent public record. That act of recording is what protects the grantee’s ownership interest against later buyers and creditors.⁷ The clerk mails the original back to the grantee, typically within a few weeks. Keep it somewhere secure; the recorded copy in the clerk’s records is what proves ownership, but the original simplifies any future transaction.

Limits of a Quitclaim Deed

A quitclaim deed transfers whatever interest the grantor holds, and nothing more. If that interest is full and clear, the grantee gets full and clear title. If the grantor has nothing, the grantee gets nothing. There is no warranty and no recourse against the grantor if a title problem shows up later.⁹ That’s why quitclaims are common among family members and divorcing spouses but a poor fit for arm’s-length purchases.

A quitclaim deed also does not touch an existing mortgage. The loan stays in the grantor’s name because the person who signed the promissory note is still responsible for paying it. Removing the grantor from the debt requires the grantee to refinance, or the lender’s agreement to release the grantor.

Transferring property can also trigger a due-on-sale clause, letting the lender demand full repayment. Federal law blocks lenders from enforcing due-on-sale clauses on several common quitclaim transfers, including transfers to a spouse or children, transfers under a divorce decree, and transfers into a living trust where the borrower remains a beneficiary.¹⁰ If your transfer falls outside those protected categories, contact the lender before you record.

Homestead Exemption After Transfer

If the property carried a homestead exemption, the transfer disrupts it. The previous owner must notify the county tax commissioner that they no longer meet the eligibility requirements.¹¹ The new owner has to apply for a homestead exemption in their own name if they’ll use the property as a primary residence.

To qualify, the new owner must have owned the property as of January 1 of the tax year and filed the homestead application by the same deadline that property tax returns are due in that county.¹¹ A mid-year transfer means the new owner cannot claim the exemption until the following January at the earliest, and the first year’s tax bill may be noticeably higher.

Fixing Mistakes After Recording

Mistakes happen. For a misspelled name, an incorrect middle initial, a minor legal-description error, or a missing execution date, the fix is a correction deed (sometimes called a deed of confirmation). It identifies the original deed by its recording information, states the specific error, and provides the corrected language. Once recorded, a correction deed relates back to the date of the original deed, so the record is treated as if it had always been correct.

Do not try to fix an error by recording a second quitclaim deed. A new quitclaim does not relate back, which creates a gap in the chain of title that can complicate future transactions and title insurance. The correction deed still needs the grantor’s signature, two witnesses (one a notary), and recording along with a new PT-61 form. Selecting the “Deed of Correction” exemption code on the PT-61 sets the tax to zero.⁶

1
Justia. Georgia Code 44-2-15 – Officers Authorized to Attest Deeds
2
FindLaw. Georgia Code 44-2-21 – Attestation of Deed Executed Outside State
3
Georgia Superior Court Clerks’ Cooperative Authority. Information for New Users – Real Estate Transfer Tax
4
Justia. Georgia Code 48-6-1 – Transfer Tax Rate
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Justia. Georgia Code 48-6-2 – Exemption of Certain Instruments From Real Estate Transfer Tax
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Georgia Superior Court Clerks’ Cooperative Authority. PT-61 E-Filing Help – Getting Started
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Justia. Georgia Code 44-2-2 – Duty of Clerk to Record Certain Transactions Affecting Real Estate and Personal Property
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Justia. Georgia Code 15-6-77 – Fees of Clerks of Superior Courts
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Georgia.gov. Transfer Property with a Quit Claim Deed
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 12 USC 1701j-3 – Preemption of Due-on-Sale Prohibitions
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Georgia Department of Revenue. Property Tax Homestead Exemptions