How to Fill Out and File a Connecticut Quit Claim Deed Form

A Connecticut quit claim deed transfers whatever interest the grantor holds in a piece of real property to the grantee, with no promise that the title is clean or that the grantor owns anything at all. To make it effective in Connecticut, you fill out the deed (the statutory form in C.G.S. § 47-36c is the easiest route), sign it in front of two witnesses and a notary, complete the state conveyance tax return (Form OP-236), and record everything at the Town Clerk’s office in the town where the property sits. The form itself is short. The execution and recording rules are strict, and missing any of them gets your document rejected.

What to Gather Before You Start

Pull these together before you open the form:

Full legal names and current mailing addresses for every grantor and every grantee. Connecticut specifically requires the grantee’s mailing address to appear on any document conveying land.¹
The legal description of the property, copied word for word from the most recently recorded deed. A street address is not enough. The description usually includes a lot number, subdivision name, and volume and page references to earlier recordings. A small discrepancy can cloud the title.
The consideration being exchanged. This can be a dollar amount or a non-monetary phrase like “love and affection” for a family gift. What you enter here drives your conveyance tax.
A copy of the most recent deed from the Town Clerk where the property is located. It confirms the current titleholder and gives you the legal description to copy.

Filling Out the Statutory Form

Connecticut’s statutory quit claim deed under C.G.S. § 47-36c is accepted by every Town Clerk and sidesteps the formatting problems that come with homemade forms.² Label the heading “Statutory Form” if you use it.

The form walks through a short list of fields:

Grantor’s full legal name and town of residence.
The consideration, stated as a dollar amount or a non-monetary expression (for example, “for consideration of ten dollars and other valuable consideration paid”).
Grantee’s full legal name, town of residence, and current mailing address.
The phrase “with QUITCLAIM COVENANTS,” which is the operative language telling the world that the grantor makes no promises about title.³
The full legal description from the last recorded deed, including volume and page references in the land records.
The date the grantor will sign.

Properly executed, the deed conveys all of the grantor’s possession, right, title, interest, and claim in the property to the grantee, unless the deed itself limits the transfer.² That sounds broad, but it only reaches what the grantor actually has. Any lien, encumbrance, or defect in the grantor’s interest passes through to the grantee.

Signing, Witnesses, and Notarization

Connecticut has four execution requirements, and the Town Clerk will reject a deed that misses any one of them.¹

The deed must be in writing. Oral transfers of real property are not valid.
The grantor signs personally. An attorney-in-fact under a properly executed power of attorney can sign on the grantor’s behalf, and a duly authorized representative signs for a business entity.
Two witnesses must watch the grantor sign and then sign the deed themselves.
The grantor must acknowledge the signature as their free act and deed before a notary public, commissioner of the Superior Court, or judge. That official affixes a seal and notes the commission expiration date on the deed.

Schedule all of this for one sitting with the grantor, both witnesses, and the notary in the same room. Bringing a pre-signed deed to a notary afterward does not satisfy the acknowledgment requirement.

Conveyance Tax and Form OP-236

Connecticut imposes a state real estate conveyance tax on most property transfers, and the Town Clerk will not record the deed unless Form OP-236 is filed with it. The form is the Connecticut Real Estate Conveyance Tax Return, published by the Department of Revenue Services.⁴

State Rates on Residential Property

The state tax is tiered:⁵

Up to $800,000: 0.75% of the consideration.
$800,000 to $2,500,000: 0.75% on the first $800,000, plus 1.25% on the portion above $800,000.
Above $2,500,000: the tiered rates above apply up to $2,500,000, plus 2.25% on everything over that.

The grantor is responsible for paying the state tax.

Municipal Tax

Every municipality adds a local conveyance tax at a base rate of 0.25%. Nineteen municipalities designated as targeted investment communities may impose an additional 0.25%, bringing the local rate to 0.50%, and most of those eligible towns impose the maximum.⁶ The municipal tax is paid to the Town Clerk when you record the deed.

Common Exemptions

Quit claim deeds often qualify for an exemption, which is one reason they are popular for family and divorce transfers. The conveyance tax does not apply to:⁷

Transfers where the stated consideration is less than $2,000.
Deeds between married spouses, regardless of value.
Deeds made under a Superior Court decree in a dissolution of marriage.
Transfers that change the form of ownership without changing who actually benefits, such as moving property into an LLC you wholly own.

You still have to file Form OP-236 for exempt transfers, with the applicable exemption marked. No completed return, no recording.

Recording at the Town Clerk

Deliver the signed, witnessed, and notarized deed, together with the completed OP-236 and any municipal tax form, to the Town Clerk in the town where the property is located. In person works. Certified mail works.

Recording Fees

Fees under C.G.S. § 7-34a have three components:⁸

A base page fee of $10 for the first page and $5 for each additional page.
A land records surcharge of $10 per document.
A second surcharge of $50 per document recorded in the land records.

A typical one-page quit claim deed runs $70 ($10 base plus the $10 and $50 surcharges). A two-page deed runs $75. These fees are separate from the conveyance tax. Bring a check made out to the Town Clerk; most offices do not accept cash for land records.

After You File

The Town Clerk indexes the deed by volume and page number in the land records. Once processed and digitized, the original is usually mailed back to the grantee within a few weeks. Keep it. You will need the volume and page reference for any future conveyance.

What the Deed Does Not Do to the Mortgage

A quit claim deed does not pay off or remove a mortgage. The loan stays attached to the property, and the original borrower stays personally liable for it. This is where most people get into trouble: handing over the deed does not hand over the debt.

Most residential mortgages contain a due-on-sale clause letting the lender demand full repayment when the property changes hands without written consent. The federal Garn-St. Germain Act bars lenders from enforcing that clause on residential property with fewer than five units in certain situations, including transfers to a spouse or child, transfers under a divorce decree, transfers to a relative on the borrower’s death, transfers into a living trust where the borrower remains a beneficiary, and transfers by inheritance when a joint tenant dies.⁹ A transfer that does not fit one of those protections can trigger the full loan balance. Call the lender before you record.

Title and Lien Risks

A quit claim deed carries no title guarantees. Property tax liens, mechanic’s liens, judgment liens, and old mortgages all survive the transfer, and the grantee inherits them. Between family members who know the property’s history, that may be a manageable risk. In any other situation, pay for a title search before closing. A few hundred dollars up front is far cheaper than discovering a $30,000 lien after recording.

Existing title insurance is another casualty. Most owner’s policies tie continued coverage to the covenants in the deed that conveyed the property to the insured. Because a quit claim deed contains no covenants, transferring this way typically ends the prior owner’s title insurance protection. The grantee does not inherit the old policy, and most title insurers will not issue a new one on a quit claim deed without an independent title search.

Federal Gift Tax on Below-Market Transfers

Transferring property for less than its fair market value creates a gift in the eyes of the IRS. A parent deeding a $350,000 house to a child for $1 has made a $349,999 gift.

The annual gift tax exclusion for 2026 is $19,000 per recipient.¹⁰ Amounts above that count against the lifetime estate and gift tax exemption, which is $15,000,000 for 2026.¹¹ You will not owe gift tax unless the lifetime exemption is already used up, but you still have to file IRS Form 709 for the year of the transfer. Gifts between spouses who are both U.S. citizens are exempt under the unlimited marital deduction.

The grantee should also understand the basis they are inheriting. When property passes as a gift, the grantee’s basis for capital gains is generally the donor’s original basis, not the current market value. That carryover can produce a much larger tax bill when the grantee eventually sells.

1
Justia. Connecticut Code 47-5
2
Connecticut General Assembly. Connecticut Code Chapter 821a – Forms of Deeds and Mortgages
3
Justia. Connecticut Code 47-36f – Force and Effect of Quitclaim Deed Form
4
Connecticut State Department of Revenue Services. Real Estate Conveyance Tax Forms
5
Connecticut General Assembly. Chapter 223 – Real Estate Conveyance Tax
6
Connecticut General Assembly. Real Estate Conveyance Tax
7
Connecticut General Assembly. Chapter 223 – Real Estate Conveyance Tax
8
Connecticut General Assembly. Connecticut General Statutes Chapter 92 – Town Clerks
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 12 USC 1701j-3 – Preemption of Due-on-Sale Prohibitions
10
Internal Revenue Service. Gifts and Inheritances
11
Internal Revenue Service. Whats New – Estate and Gift Tax