Do a quick search for a quit claim deed in Florida and you’ll get a one page form, not the warnings you probably need. The form looks like a tidy answer to a question plenty of St. Augustine homeowners ask: how do I make sure the house goes to my kids without a lot of fuss?
There are moments when a quitclaim deed is the right tool. What gets missed is how it touches everything around it: your homestead protections, your property tax bill, and who has a say in the house afterward.
What This Deed Does and What It Leaves Out
A quitclaim deed hands over whatever ownership interest you have, and nothing more. It doesn’t confirm the title is clean, deal with liens, or promise that the person signing owns what they think they own. A warranty deed, the kind used when a house is sold to a buyer, does make those promises.
That gap works fine in the right setting, like moving your own home into your own revocable trust. It becomes a different story when the deed is asked to do work it was never built for.
In Florida, Your Spouse Has to Sign
Here’s the rule that catches people off guard. If you’re married and the home is your primary residence, your spouse has to sign the deed too, even if their name has never appeared on the title. Florida’s homestead protections attach to the marriage, not to whose name is on the paperwork, so a deed signed by only one spouse can be undone later. Recording it at the courthouse doesn’t solve that.
How the deed gets signed matters too. Florida requires two witnesses in addition to a notary, which is stricter than what many other states ask for and more than most downloaded forms prompt you to do.
The Tax Details Worth Knowing First
- The tax break on your house. Once you claim a Florida home as your primary residence, the county can only raise the value it taxes you on by a small amount each year, even while the house itself keeps climbing in value. After ten or fifteen years, the county may be taxing your home on a number well below what it would sell for, and that discount shows up on every bill. Some deed changes end it, and the county starts over at full value. Deeds between spouses, or into your own revocable trust, usually don’t.
- Transfer tax. Florida charges a documentary stamp tax on deeds, and an unpaid mortgage balance can count toward what’s owed even when no money changes hands.
- Your homestead exemption. The exemption follows the owners who live in the home and qualify for it. Add a co-owner who lives somewhere else and the exemption may apply to only part of the property going forward, which is one more thing to sort out before a deed gets signed on your Florida home.
Adding a Name Adds a Life
When you put someone else on the deed, their circumstances become part of your home’s story. The share you gave them is theirs, which means it can be pulled into their divorce or their debts, and you’ll need their signature before you sell or refinance. Families rarely intend that. It comes along with joint ownership.
Better Ways to Get to the Same Place
Homeowners who look at a deed transfer want the same three things: control now, no probate later, and the home landing with the right people. Florida has tools built for that.
- A revocable living trust holds the home while you keep living in it, refinancing it, or selling it, then directs where it goes afterward without probate.
- An enhanced life estate deed, often called a Lady Bird deed, is recognized in Florida and lets you keep control and your homestead exemption for life, with the home passing to the people you name.
Which one fits depends on your family, your mortgage, and what the rest of your estate planning documents already say.
Key Takeaways
- A quitclaim deed passes along only what the signer owns, with no promises about title or liens.
- A married homeowner needs a spouse’s signature to deed a Florida homestead, even when the spouse isn’t on the title.
- A deed change can end the property tax break on your primary residence and may trigger Florida transfer tax.
- Your homestead exemption applies to the owners who live in the home, so adding a co-owner can change it.
- A revocable trust or a Lady Bird deed may get you to the same goal while keeping you in control.
Talk It Through Before You Sign
A deed is one piece of a much bigger picture, and a downloaded form can’t see the rest of it: the house, the homestead protections, the tax history, and the people you’re trying to take care of. Attorney Heather Maltby takes time to understand how your family is put together before recommending any document, and that conversation is often the quickest way to learn whether a deed belongs in your plan at all.
E.P.P.G. Law of St. Johns works with families across St. Augustine, St. Johns County, and Palm Coast. If a deed transfer is on your mind, reach out and let’s look at it together. Request a consultation to learn more.
References: Bankrate (September 4, 2019) “Quitclaim vs. warranty deed: What you need to know” · Kiplinger (March 20, 2024) “How Quitclaim Deeds Can Cause Estate Planning Catastrophes”