To file a quitclaim deed in Washington State, you prepare the deed with the required first-page formatting, complete a Real Estate Excise Tax Affidavit (REETA), sign the deed before a notary, take everything to the county treasurer to process the excise tax or exemption, and then take the stamped documents to the county auditor to be recorded. The process is two offices, in that order, and the paperwork has to match Washington’s specific formatting rules or the auditor will hand it back.
Gather This Before You Draft Anything
You need a handful of pieces of information before you sit down with a form:
- Full legal names of the grantor (transferring) and grantee (receiving), as they appear on the current title.
- The legal description of the property. This is not the street address. It uses lot, block, and plat name, or section, township, and range, and appears on the existing deed or in the county assessor’s records.
- The assessor’s tax parcel number, found on your property tax statement or the assessor’s website.
- The consideration. For a gift, this is commonly stated as “$10 and other good and valuable consideration” or similar nominal language.
Your county assessor’s website is the easiest place to look up both the legal description and the parcel number if you don’t have the existing deed in front of you.
A Note If You Are Married
Washington is a community property state. If the property is community property, both spouses must sign the deed for the conveyance to be valid. A quitclaim deed signed by only one spouse on community real property is not a valid conveyance under RCW 26.16.030.1Washington State Legislature. RCW 26.16.030 Community Property Defined – Management and Control Even when one spouse is transferring their interest to the other, identify both on the deed. If you are not sure whether the property is community or separate, resolve that before you draft, not after the auditor rejects it.
Format the Deed to Washington’s Recording Standards
Washington auditors reject documents that do not meet the formatting rules in RCW 65.04.045, and this is where most self-filed deeds run into trouble.2Washington State Legislature. RCW 65.04.045 Recorded Instruments – Requirements The rules that trip people up most:
- Top margin on the first page: at least three inches. Side and bottom margins at least one inch.
- All other pages: one-inch margins on all sides.
- Paper no larger than 8.5 by 14 inches, printed in at least 8-point type.
- Ink dark enough to scan legibly.
The first page must also carry specific content: the document title (“Quitclaim Deed”), the grantor and grantee names, an abbreviated legal description (lot, block, plat name, or quarter-quarter section, township, and range), the assessor’s tax parcel number listed separately from the legal description, a return mailing address, and reference numbers for any previously recorded documents being assigned or released. If the full legal description appears on a later page, note that page number on page one.
If you cannot fit all of that on the first page within the required margins, attach a cover sheet using the statutory format in RCW 65.04.047 that carries the required information instead.3Washington State Legislature. RCW 65.04.047 Recorded Instruments – Cover Sheet The auditor indexes from whatever is on the first page or cover sheet, so accuracy here determines whether the transfer shows up in future title searches.
Washington’s statutory quitclaim form itself is short: it identifies the grantor, states the consideration, names the grantee, and describes the property.4Washington State Legislature. RCW 64.04.050 Quitclaim Deed – Form and Effect
Complete the Real Estate Excise Tax Affidavit
Washington requires a Real Estate Excise Tax Affidavit for virtually every property transfer, including gifts where no money changes hands.5Washington State Legislature. RCW 82.45.060 Tax on Sale of Property You cannot record a deed without first processing this form through the county treasurer.
Download the current REETA from the Washington Department of Revenue, and make sure the version matches your transfer date since the forms are periodically updated.6Washington Department of Revenue. Real Estate Excise Tax Forms
When Excise Tax Is Owed and When It Isn’t
If the transfer is a sale, Washington charges a graduated Real Estate Excise Tax on the sale price, and most cities and counties add a local REET on top. Check the current rates and thresholds on the Department of Revenue’s REET page for your transfer date, and ask your county treasurer for the combined local rate.7Washington Department of Revenue. Real Estate Excise Tax
Many quitclaim transfers qualify for an exemption. The most common:
- Bona fide gifts with no consideration. You still file the REETA and mark the gift exemption.
- Transfers between spouses or domestic partners under a dissolution decree, legal separation, or property settlement agreement.8Washington State Legislature. WAC 458-61A-203 Decree of Dissolution
- Transfers to or from a governmental entity for public use.
Claiming any exemption also requires a Real Estate Excise Tax Supplemental Statement. Every grantor and every grantee must sign that form personally; an agent cannot sign for them. Counties typically want four copies of both the REETA and the Supplemental Statement, with original signatures on the top copy.9Lewis County, WA. Instructions for Processing Deeds in Lewis County
Sign Before a Notary
The grantor must sign the quitclaim deed in front of a notary public. The notarial acknowledgment is what makes the deed eligible for recording. Washington caps notary fees at $10 per notarial act for in-person notarization and $25 for a remote online notarial act. A mobile notary who travels to you can charge a separate travel fee on top of the statutory maximum for the notarization itself.
File With the County: Treasurer First, Then Auditor
Recording is a two-stop process, and the order is not optional.
Step One: The County Treasurer
Bring the notarized deed, the completed REETA (with copies), and the Supplemental Statement if you’re claiming an exemption to the treasurer’s office in the county where the property is located. The treasurer reviews the REETA, collects any excise tax owed or confirms the exemption, and stamps your documents.10Douglas County, WA. Real Estate Excise Tax Information
Step Two: The County Auditor
Take the stamped deed to the county auditor for recording. The auditor checks formatting, collects the recording fee, and enters the deed into the public record with a unique recording number and date. That is the moment the transfer becomes part of the official chain of title. Recording fees vary by document and are set by statute, so call your auditor’s office for the current fee before you go. Showing up without the right payment is a common reason people leave without a recorded deed.
Electronic Recording
Some Washington counties accept electronically submitted deeds under state technical standards, with electronic payment of the fee and excise tax handled through the same system.11Washington State Legislature. WAC 434-661-030 Washington Real Property Electronic Recording Standards Not every county participates. Check with your county auditor to see whether e-recording is offered and which platforms they accept.
After Recording
The auditor’s office mails the original recorded deed to the return address on the document. Turnaround varies by county but usually runs a few weeks. The transfer is legally effective as of the recording date. Keep the original with the recording stamp somewhere safe. The county holds the official record, but having your copy simplifies future transactions, refinancing, and title searches.
Before You Record: Risks That Aren’t Obvious
The mechanics of filing are the easy part. The consequences are where people get hurt, and a few of these should be settled before the deed is signed, not after.
Your Mortgage May Be Called Due
A quitclaim deed does not remove the grantor from an existing mortgage. The loan stays in the original borrower’s name, and the change in ownership can trigger the loan’s due-on-sale clause, allowing the lender to demand full repayment. Federal law shields several common situations on residential property with fewer than five units, including transfers to a spouse or children, transfers under a divorce decree or legal separation, transfers into a living trust where the borrower remains a beneficiary and keeps occupying the property, transfers to a joint tenant on the death of a co-owner, and transfers to a relative on the borrower’s death.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 12 U.S. Code 1701j-3 Preemption of Due-on-Sale Prohibitions Outside those categories, talk to your lender before recording.
The Recipient May Inherit a Tax Bill
Property received as a gift takes the donor’s basis, not the current market value.13eCFR. 26 CFR 1.1015-1 Basis of Property Acquired by Gift If a parent bought a house for $150,000 and quitclaims it to a child when it is worth $600,000, the child’s basis is $150,000. Sell later for $600,000, and $450,000 is taxable gain. The same property left through the estate at death would receive a stepped-up basis at fair market value, often eliminating the gain entirely. This is the single most consequential reason estate planners push back on using quitclaim deeds as an inheritance shortcut.
Gift Tax Filing
Transferring real property for no consideration is a gift for federal tax purposes. Real estate almost always exceeds the annual per-recipient exclusion, so the donor generally must file IRS Form 709 for the year of the transfer.14Internal Revenue Service. Whats New – Estate and Gift Tax Filing the return does not necessarily mean tax is owed; the excess simply counts against the lifetime exemption. But skipping the return is a compliance problem.
Title Insurance Usually Ends
An owner’s title insurance policy generally protects only the named insured. Transferring to someone other than the insured typically terminates coverage, and a new policy for the new owner will exclude anything recorded since the original policy issued. Some newer policy forms treat certain transferees, such as a spouse taking title in a divorce or a transfer into a trust, as successor insureds. Whether yours does depends on the policy form year and the type of transfer. Call your title insurer before recording if coverage matters to you.
Medicaid Look-Back
If Medicaid-funded long-term care is a possibility within the next five years, get advice before signing. Federal law imposes a 60-month look-back on asset transfers: giving property away for less than fair value during that window creates a penalty period during which Medicaid will not cover nursing facility costs, calculated by dividing the value transferred by the average monthly nursing home cost in your state.15Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 1396p Liens, Adjustments and Recoveries, and Transfers of Assets The penalty clock does not start until the applicant has spent down and applied, so a transfer five years and one month before the application is safe while one made four years and eleven months before can leave a multi-year coverage gap at the worst time. An elder law attorney is the right stop before recording in this situation.