Expert: Dick Dennis - 11/15/2007

Question
My husband and I bought a new house in March.  We put the old house on the market, but our son got married, my husband and I decided to let them take over the mortgage and live in the old house.  The house was appraised at $350K and the balance of mortgage was $220K.   Since our names were not on the mortgage, they were taken out of the title.  Now, we wanted to add our names back into the title.  We want to do a quit claim deed, but did not know how to put the correct ownership.  The title will have four names.  

My son and his wife - 62.86%
and
My husband and myself - 37.14%

as Tenants in Common

We do not want to hire a lawyer just for the quit claim deed.

Please help.  

Answer
You like to play with fire, don't you, Phy? Go to a title company and ask them to fill out a WARRANTY deed the way you want it. It will cost only nominally. But you will be able to sleep at night. There is a difference between a warranty deed (grant deed is some states) and a quit-claim deed. One warrants that the title is proper. The other does not. By the way, would you like quit-claim deed to the Empire State Building, or how about the Golden Gate Bridge? I will give one to you. Special today.

A warranty (or grant deed depending on the state)assures the new owner that the old owner had the title to convey. A quit-claim deed does not.

I do wish you well, Phy.

Dick Dennis