A quit claim deed is a document that provides for complete revoking of a property by a person. When the quit claim deed in signed, the person is essentially giving up all claims on the property in question and is transferring it to another person. For the quit claim deed to be fruitful and effective, the person signing the quit claim deed on the property must own the property in the first place. Hence, signing a quit claim deed will be ineffective if you are not in direct ownership of the property.
The signing of a quit claim deed should not be taken lightly and an expert lawyer should always be consulted before any such document is signed. This is because a quit claim deed is non-reversible and unless the other person (to whom the claim went) signs a similar transfer to you, the property will be out of your hands forever.
A quit claim deed should only be used when the owner of the property wants to relinquish all claims to the property, including any ownership and financial claims. However, contrary to the popular belief, signing a quit claim deed cannot get you out of mortgage claims. This is potentially a dangerous situation where you might lose both ways. If you are part of a note that makes you liable to paying the mortgage on the property, you cannot get out the of paying the mortgage by signing the quit claim deed. If there are other people in joint ownership with you, they should get the loan refinanced in their name, excluding you completely. Or else, you might end up in a situation where you are liable for paying the mortgage but you will not have any rights over the property you are paying for.
If you want to gift a part of your property to your partner or friend, you can do so by setting up a living trust. The living trust is a much more flexible than a quit claims deed. Once a quit claims deed is executed legally, you will have no rights over the part of the property that you will be giving away.
A quit claim deed should only be filed when you are sure that you want the property to be completely handed over to another person without any conditions whatsoever. The signing of a quit claims deed needs to be done in a fully legal manner and only after proper counsel. The quit claim deed needs to be signed by the owner of the property first. Then for it to stand as a binding document, there should be witnesses to the entire proceeding. The receiving party will need to counter-sign the deed. The deed then will need to be notarized at a local office that holds the power to notarize the deed.
Once all this is done, the transfer will be final and binding. It is very hard to change the situation and hence this deed is highly permanent in nature.
