To transfer a property title to a family member in California, you sign a deed in front of a notary and record it with the county recorder’s office where the property sits. The mechanics are simple. The consequences — property tax reassessment, gift tax reporting, capital gains basis, mortgage acceleration, Medi-Cal eligibility — are where families get hurt if they move too fast.
Pick the Right Deed for the Transfer
Which deed you use depends on the relationship and what you’re trying to accomplish.
A grant deed is the standard choice for most family transfers. Under Civil Code Section 1092, it carries two built-in promises: that you haven’t already transferred the property to someone else, and that you haven’t placed any undisclosed liens or encumbrances on it.1California Legislative Information. California Code CIV 1092 Those covenants give the new owner a legal claim against you if a hidden title problem surfaces later.
A quitclaim deed transfers whatever interest you currently hold, with no promise that your interest is any good. If it turns out you had nothing to give, the recipient gets nothing and no recourse. Families use quitclaims to add or remove a name from title, clean up an old ownership question, or move property between relatives when no money changes hands. One tradeoff is worth flagging: because a quitclaim carries no covenants, existing title insurance on the property may stop covering the new owner, so the recipient should think about buying a new policy.
An interspousal transfer grant deed moves property between spouses or registered domestic partners. All transfers between spouses during marriage are excluded from property tax reassessment regardless of how title is held.2California State Board of Equalization. Change in Ownership – Frequently Asked Questions Using this deed signals the exclusion to the assessor so a routine ownership change doesn’t accidentally trigger a tax hike.
A revocable transfer on death (TOD) deed names a beneficiary who automatically receives the property when you die, skipping probate.3San Bernardino County Recorder/Clerk. Revocable Transfer on Death (TOD) Deed You can revoke it at any time while you’re alive. The paperwork has a hard deadline: it must be recorded within 60 days of being notarized or it has no legal effect.4Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk. Revocable Transfer on Death Deed TOD deeds are also limited to certain property types: residential with one to four units, a condominium, or a small agricultural parcel of 40 acres or less with a single-family home. Commercial property, apartment buildings with five or more units, and larger agricultural parcels do not qualify.5California State Board of Equalization. Revocable Transfer on Death Deed – Effect Upon Property Tax
What You Need Before You Sign
Every deed needs three pieces of identifying information: the full legal names of the current owner (grantor) and the new owner (grantee), the Assessor’s Parcel Number (APN), and the formal legal description of the property.6Los Angeles County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs. Understanding Real Estate Documents – Grant Deed The legal description is not the street address. It’s a technical boundary description you’ll find on the current deed or a prior title report. Small errors in that description can cause the recorder to reject the filing.
You also need to decide how the new owner will hold title, sometimes called “vesting.” If you’re transferring to two siblings, they could hold as joint tenants, where the survivor automatically takes the other’s share, or as tenants in common, where each owns a separate share they can leave to anyone. Married couples often take title as community property or community property with right of survivorship. The vesting language controls what happens when an owner dies or wants to sell their share, so it’s worth getting right the first time.
Two supplemental forms travel with the deed to recording. The Preliminary Change of Ownership Report (PCOR) helps the county assessor decide whether the transfer triggers reassessment or qualifies for an exclusion.7County of Marin. BOE-502-A – Preliminary Change of Ownership Report A Documentary Transfer Tax affidavit states the property value or the reason the transfer is exempt. Skip either form and the recorder will delay or block the filing.
Signing and Notarizing the Deed
The grantor must sign the deed in front of a commissioned notary public. The notary verifies the signer’s identity and attaches an acknowledgment, which is what makes the document eligible for recording.8California Department of Real Estate. Title to Real Property Government Code Section 8211 caps the notary’s charge at $15 per signature.9California Legislative Information. California Code GOV 8211 Without the notarized acknowledgment, the county recorder will refuse to accept the document.
Format matters too. The deed should be printed on 8½-by-11-inch paper with the margins the recorder specifies. Non-conforming documents are usually still recorded, but with a non-standard page surcharge added to the fee.
Recording the Deed and What It Costs
Once the deed is signed, notarized, and the supplemental forms are filled out, submit the entire package to the county recorder’s office in the county where the property sits. You can file in person or by certified mail. When the recorder accepts it, the deed receives a document number and gets scanned into the public record, which puts the world on constructive notice that ownership has changed. The office typically mails the stamped original back within a few weeks.
Recording fees are not a single flat number. The base charge is $10 for the first page and $3 for each additional page, and most recordings carry a $75 surcharge under the Building Homes and Jobs Act (SB 2) plus a $2 fee under AB 1466, though certain exempt transfers avoid the surcharges.10Sonoma County. Recorder Fee Schedule Call the county recorder before you go to confirm what applies to your transfer.
Separately, California imposes a documentary transfer tax of $1.10 per $1,000 of property value on most recorded transfers.11California Legislative Information. California Code RTC 11911 On an $800,000 home, that’s $880. Transfers that qualify as gifts, transfers resulting from death, and interspousal transfers are typically exempt. The exemption reason is stated on the face of the deed or on a separate affidavit filed with it. Some California cities also layer on their own transfer tax, most commonly at an additional $0.55 per $1,000. A handful of cities charge dramatically more, so check the local rate before you record.
Property Tax Reassessment Under Proposition 19
This is where parent-child transfers go wrong most often. Before February 2021, a parent could transfer a primary residence and up to $1 million in other real property to a child without reassessment. Proposition 19 eliminated most of that protection. Revenue and Taxation Code Section 63.2 now controls, and it is substantially tighter.12California Legislative Information. California Code RTC 63.2
A parent-to-child transfer (or grandparent-to-grandchild when the parents are deceased) avoids reassessment only if all three conditions are met:
- The property was the parent’s principal residence at the time of transfer. Investment property, vacation homes, and rentals no longer qualify for any exclusion.
- The child uses the home as their own primary residence within one year of the transfer and continues living there.
- The home’s current market value does not exceed the parent’s factored base year value by more than roughly $1,044,586 (the inflation-adjusted cap for transfers between February 16, 2025, and February 15, 2027). Any excess above that threshold gets added to the tax base.13California State Board of Equalization. Property Tax Savings – Transfers Between Parents and Children
Filing deadlines are strict. To get the exclusion from the date of transfer, the child must claim either a homeowner’s exemption or a disabled veterans’ exemption within one year of the transfer. The parent-child exclusion claim itself (BOE Form 19-P) must be filed with the county assessor within three years of the transfer, or before the child transfers the property to a third party, whichever comes first.14California State Board of Equalization. Proposition 19 A late claim is still possible, but the tax reduction only applies going forward from the year it’s filed, not retroactively.
Federal Gift Tax Reporting
When you transfer property to a family member without receiving fair market value in return, the IRS treats it as a gift. For 2026, the annual gift tax exclusion is $19,000 per recipient.15Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026 California real estate is almost always worth more than that, so the transfer will usually require filing IRS Form 709 by April 15 of the year after the transfer.16Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 709
Filing the form is not the same as owing tax. The amount above the annual exclusion counts against your lifetime unified credit, which shelters millions of dollars in combined gifts and estate transfers before any tax is actually due. Most families never pay gift tax, but skipping the return creates a compliance problem that can surface years later. If both you and your spouse own the property, you can each apply your $19,000 exclusion to the same recipient, and married couples can elect gift-splitting on Form 709 to effectively double the annual exclusion even when only one spouse owns the asset.
Capital Gains and the Cost Basis Trap
How you move the property determines what the recipient owes when they eventually sell. The difference between a lifetime gift and an inheritance can be six figures.
Give property away during your lifetime and the recipient inherits your original cost basis. If you bought the house in 1990 for $150,000, your child’s basis is $150,000, no matter what the house is worth today. Sell for $900,000 and the child could face capital gains tax on $750,000 of gain, minus selling costs.
Property that passes at death gets a stepped-up basis equal to the fair market value on the date of death. Same numbers: if the home is worth $900,000 when the parent dies, the child’s basis resets to $900,000, and a sale the next day at that price produces no taxable gain. That’s why estate planners often warn against gifting appreciated property during life when the owner is elderly.
One meaningful offset exists. A recipient who uses the property as their primary residence for at least two of the five years before selling can exclude up to $250,000 in gain, or $500,000 for a married couple filing jointly, under federal law.17Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 121 – Exclusion of Gain From Sale of Principal Residence For a transfer between spouses during marriage or incident to divorce, the receiving spouse can count the transferor’s ownership period toward the two-year rule.
If the Property Has a Mortgage
Transferring title does not pay off the mortgage. The original borrower stays personally liable unless the lender agrees otherwise, and most mortgage contracts contain a due-on-sale clause that lets the lender call the loan when ownership changes.
Federal law shields several common family transfers. Under the Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act, a lender cannot enforce a due-on-sale clause on a property with fewer than five dwelling units when the transfer falls into one of these categories:
- Transfer to a spouse or child of the borrower.
- Transfer on the borrower’s death by inheritance, joint tenancy survivorship, or to a relative.
- Transfer to a spouse through a divorce decree or separation agreement.18Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 12 USC 1701j-3 – Preemption of Due-on-Sale Prohibitions
Transfers to siblings, parents, cousins, or other relatives outside those categories are not protected. Properties with five or more dwelling units are also outside the exemption. Contact the lender before recording if your transfer isn’t on the protected list.
Medi-Cal Look-Back Starting January 2026
California has adopted a Medi-Cal look-back period that will change the timing calculus on family transfers. Starting January 1, 2026, when someone enters a nursing home and applies for Medi-Cal, the state will review assets given away during the 30 months before admission. A property transfer inside that window could trigger a penalty period that delays Medi-Cal eligibility.19DHCS. Asset Limit Frequently Asked Questions Transfers completed before January 1, 2026, are not subject to the look-back. For an owner who may need long-term care, the date on the deed now matters in a way it did not before.
Update Insurance After Recording
Homeowners insurance covers the named insured, so the existing policy does not automatically follow the title. The new owner needs to contact the carrier to update the policy or buy a new one. Title insurance is a separate matter: when property moves by quitclaim, the original owner’s title policy often stops protecting the new owner, and buying a fresh policy is worth the cost on any property with a complicated ownership history or likely future sale.