Hello 

As part of your living revocable trust process, you need to transfer all of your real property into the actual ownership of the trust. This is done by making out a quit claim deed from yourself (assuming you now own the property) to the trust as the new owner.

A quit claim deed is sufficient for this transfer, because you are moving the property to yourself in a sense. Warranties that are attached to the property shouldn’t be lost.

The question I get is should the deed be recorded. Is the deed valid if it isn’t recorded? Recording is just a way of making the transfer of the property appear in the public record. The deed is valid if it is not recorded.

However

• You are not protected from transactions where a person is relying on the old property ownership situation.
• You are not protected if the deed is lost.
• You don’t have a second set of eyes looking at the deed. The recorders will often look at the deed and they pick up errors in deeds all of the time.
• There might be a question as to whether or not the deed was “delivered.” Delivery is an essential part of a deed. The “dresser drawer” deeds are invalid, because there was no delivery. The deed has to be physically delivered to the new owner or it is not valid.

Recording your deed is probably the wise thing to do. It might trigger a transfer tax in some states, and there will always be fees at the recorder’s office. You can mail it to the recorder and save yourself the trip, so it isn’t a big inconvenience.

Lee Phillips