How to Get a Warranty Deed in Florida: Signing, Recording, and Taxes

To get a warranty deed in Florida, you draft a deed that meets the statutory form, have the seller sign it in front of two witnesses and a notary, and record it with the Clerk of the Circuit Court in the county where the property sits. Along the way you pay the documentary stamp tax and, if the property is a married owner’s homestead, you get both spouses to sign. Miss any of those pieces and the deed can be rejected at the counter or, worse, held void years later.

Is a Warranty Deed the Right Instrument

Florida recognizes general warranty deeds, special warranty deeds, and quitclaim deeds. A general warranty deed gives the buyer the strongest protection: the seller guarantees clear title going back through the entire chain of ownership and promises to defend the buyer against any lawful claim. The statutory form uses language where the seller “fully warrant[s] the title to said land, and will defend the same against the lawful claims of all persons whomsoever.”¹ Special warranty deeds limit that promise to the seller’s own period of ownership and are common in commercial deals. Quitclaim deeds carry no promise at all and are used mainly to clear up title or move property between family members. For a standard residential sale, the buyer should insist on a general warranty deed.

Information You Need Before Drafting

Pull the following together before you start typing. Most of it comes straight from Florida’s statutory deed form and recording rules.

Full legal names of the seller (grantor) and buyer (grantee), plus the county and state where each lives.
The grantee’s mailing address. Florida requires the grantee’s name and address to appear on any instrument conveying an interest in real property.²
Consideration, meaning the value being exchanged. Even a gift deed lists a nominal amount like ten dollars because the statutory form calls for a stated sum.¹
The property’s legal description, not the street address. You can copy this from the prior deed or find it on the county property appraiser’s website. The statute is explicit that a parcel ID number is not a substitute for the legal description.¹
The parcel identification number. The form has to include a blank space for it, and you should enter the number before recording if you have it. A missing or wrong parcel ID won’t void the deed, but it helps the county index the transfer.¹
The grantor’s marital status, because of the homestead rule below.

Get the legal description right the first time. Fixing a bad description after recording is possible but painful.

The Homestead Spousal Joinder Rule

This is where deeds most often fall apart in Florida. The state constitution requires a married owner of homestead property to be “joined by the spouse” when selling, mortgaging, or giving away the home.³ Both spouses must sign the warranty deed, even if only one spouse is on the title. A deed signed by the title-holding spouse alone is void from the start.

The rule does not care whose name is on title or who paid for the house. If the property is your primary residence and you are married, your spouse signs. A power of attorney can substitute if a spouse can’t sign in person, but the power of attorney has to be executed with the same formalities as a deed, and it does not do away with the joinder requirement itself.⁴

Signing the Deed

Florida imposes three separate signing requirements, and every one has to be satisfied.

Two Witnesses

The grantor signs in the presence of two subscribing witnesses, who also sign the deed.⁵ Each witness’s name and address must be printed legibly under the signature.² Florida now allows witnesses to participate remotely through audio-video technology, as long as they can hear the grantor acknowledge the signature.

Notary Acknowledgment

The grantor’s signature must be acknowledged before a notary public. The notary verifies identity and confirms the signing is voluntary. The notary’s name, signature, seal, commission expiration date, and commission number all have to appear on the deed.² Most people handle the witnesses and the notary in one sitting, since a notary can generally serve as one of the two witnesses.

Preparer Identification

The deed must name the natural person who prepared it, or under whose supervision it was prepared, with a printed name and mailing address.² A law firm name alone is not enough; an actual person’s name has to appear. The grantee does not sign.

Recording the Deed

Once the deed is signed, witnessed, and notarized, take it to the Clerk of the Circuit Court in the county where the property is located. You can record in person or by mail. Recording puts the world on notice of the ownership change and protects the buyer against competing claims.

Formatting the Clerk Will Accept

The clerk will reject a deed that doesn’t meet Florida’s formatting rules. The first page needs a blank 3-inch by 3-inch space in the top right corner for the clerk’s stamps and indexing. Each additional page needs a 1-inch by 3-inch blank space in the same position.² If you mail the deed in, include a self-addressed stamped envelope so the clerk can return the original after scanning.

Recording Fees

Recording costs $10.00 for the first page and $8.50 for each additional page under the statutory schedule.⁶ If the deed lists more than four named parties, add $1.00 for each extra name.

Record Quickly

Florida sets ownership priority by the order documents are recorded. The statute is blunt: a deed with a lower official register number beats a deed with a higher one.⁷ If a dishonest seller deeded the same property to two buyers, the buyer who recorded first would generally win. Sitting on an unrecorded deed is one of the riskiest things a buyer can do.

Documentary Stamp Tax

The documentary stamp tax is usually the biggest cost of recording. Florida charges $0.70 for every $100 of consideration, rounded up to the nearest $100.⁸ On a $350,000 home, that comes to $2,450.

Miami-Dade County is the exception. Single-family homes there are taxed at $0.60 per $100. All other Miami-Dade property types pay $0.60 plus a $0.45 surtax, for a combined rate of $1.05 per $100.⁹ The surtax catches people off guard on commercial deals.

Using a Warranty Deed for a Gift

Florida warranty deeds are often used to move property between family members for little or no money. The deed itself works the same way — you list a nominal consideration such as ten dollars — but the federal tax picture changes.

When property changes hands for less than fair market value, the IRS treats the difference as a gift. For 2026, the annual gift tax exclusion is $19,000 per recipient.¹⁰ Almost any real estate blows past that number, so the donor will need to file Form 709, the federal gift tax return. Filing doesn’t automatically mean tax is owed; the gift counts against your lifetime exclusion, which for 2026 is $15,000,000.¹¹ Most donors won’t owe gift tax, but failing to file the return is a common and avoidable mistake.

The documentary stamp tax still applies to a gift transfer, but it’s calculated on the nominal consideration stated in the deed rather than the property’s market value.

If You Find an Error After Recording

Transposed lot numbers, misspelled names, and wrong directional references happen. Florida has a specific statute for fixing certain scrivener’s errors without a lawsuit. If the error is limited to a single mistake in a lot number, block number, unit designation, or directional reference, the parties can file a curative notice in the county’s official records. The notice corrects the original deed and relates back to the original recording date.¹² Several conditions apply: the grantor must have held title to the intended property at the time, the property can’t be described only by metes and bounds, and the deed can’t contain more than one error.

Errors that don’t fit that narrow window usually require a corrective deed executed by both parties referencing the original instrument. If the original grantor won’t cooperate, the buyer may have to sue to reform the deed. That is exactly why nailing the legal description before recording pays off.

1
Justia Law. Florida Code 689.02 – Form of Warranty Deed Prescribed
2
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 695.26 – Requirements for Recording Instruments Affecting Real Property
3
FindLaw. Florida Constitution Art X, Section 4 – Homestead; Exemptions
4
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 689.111 – Conveyances of Homestead; Power of Attorney
5
Justia Law. Florida Code 689.01 – How Real Estate Conveyed
6
FindLaw. Florida Code 28.24 – Service Charges by Clerk of the Circuit Court
7
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 695.11 – Instruments Deemed to Be Recorded From Time of Filing
8
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 201.02 – Tax on Deeds and Other Instruments Relating to Real Property or Interests in Real Property
9
Florida Department of Revenue. Documentary Stamp Tax
10
Internal Revenue Service. Frequently Asked Questions on Gift Taxes
11
Internal Revenue Service. What’s New – Estate and Gift Tax
12
Florida Senate. Florida Code 689.041 – Conveyances of Real Property Containing a Scrivener’s Error