eSignature Lawfulness for Warranty Deed - Simplify Document Signing Process

How to eSign a document: eSignature lawfulness for Warranty Deed

Deeds a deed is a written document that transfers ownership of real property now we have three types of Deeds that we generally see uh in the United States that they're they're fairly commonly used the first one is the general warranty deed second one is what we call the special warranty deed sometimes special uh is instead of that word we see the word limited used and then the Third Kind is a quick claim deed not as common as the other two so let's take a closer look at the first one the general warranty deed all right the general warranty deed we call it a warranty deed because it contains a warranty and what is a warranty a warranty is an assurance of some sort some level of quality uh that is associated with the product or the transaction and in this case we're talking about the quality of the title exactly uh how good the title is is it good marketable is are there any conflicting uh opposing claims to the title of the property so that's what this warranty is looking at here and there there typically going to be several uh warranties within this broad warranty that we we're talking about first one is Old English concept called season or in today's language probably referring to just the right warranty that that there is that right to possess the land that there is that uh right of ownership that when I do convey this to you you are the owner you will have a right to possess the property as I do now uh the second right is well the second warranty is I've got a right to convey the property to you I am warranting I am assuring you that I do have that right to transfer it to you and once I transfer to you you'll have that right to similarly transfer in the future uh there are no encumbrances that I am uh transferring this property conveying this property you free of encumbrances now virtually every Pro property that we convey is going to have some sort of convey uh some sort of encumbrances so in the deed that we will ultimately prepare there will be some sort of law that makes reference to those U encumbrances that are perhaps on record uh in some way but uh the idea is that I haven't put any uh incumbrances on this land that uh I'm not otherwise disclosing to you there's this warranty of further Assurance if there's something that I have left undone to to complete this transaction I assure you that I will sign that paper I will deliver that document I will uh make that correction to this deed if there are any mistakes so that's a a warranty of further assurance and then finally uh I I am warranting to you that you will have quiet enjoyment of this property that there's not going to be any conflicting claims to it that this will be yours um now now here's the deal with warranties if you violate a warranty that you've made you're liable so the grantor is the one that's making these warranties here and so if the grantor uh breaches any of these warranties here it is the gror that is liable in a potential lawsuit so let's look at the effect of this warranty and also at the same time compare it to what we call the limited warranty deed rather than the general warranty deed um over here I've got General warranty deed and on this side of the panel I've got the uh the limited or special warranty deed now in the middle I've got running what we would might call a chain of title owner a transfers to B who transfers to C who later conveys to D who later conveys to e and now e is planning on conveying the land to F when e gives a general warranty deed to f e is saying that the title that I'm passing to you Mr f is free and clear of any defects that I created during my term of ownership or that anybody else created going back many years prior to my ownership I am saying I'm representing to you I'm warranting to you there's no defect and title that occur occurred anywhere along here and if there is I am responsible for you to making it right declaring it or paying damages now let's contrast that with what's going on with the limited warrant D what some people call special warranty de don't be fooled by that word special nothing special about it as far as being extra quality because as you can see here a limited or special warranty deed has a lesser of a a lesser quality uh warranty than does the general warranty deed so this limited warranty deed says that e is saying F the title that I'm giving you is free and clear of any defects that I created but I'm not going to make that representation for anybody who owned it prior to me well which one would you rather have the general or The Limited yeah the general because it covers a much greater period of time let's talk about the last one now Quick Claim Deed you won't see this uh all that often uh usually the general warranty deed is the most common and sometimes we will accept a a limited warranty deed Quick Claim Deed you won't see all that often but occasionally you might what's going on here is that a quit claim deed does transfer the title whatever title or interest that the grantor happens to have however the grantor is not making any promises or warranty as to what they really do own so in essence if you want to do a translation uh or a restating of of what the quick claim deed is saying it is saying if I do have some interest in the property it's yours but I'm not saying that I do but if I do it's yours that's basically a quick claim deed so what's the best kind of deed to have clearly the general warranty deed so what are the requirements of a deed you'll see some similarities here if you know anything about contracts you'll see some similarities to to uh elements of a contract here well the first thing is it has to be in writing a deed to real property must be in writing uh that's because real estate transactions must be evidenced by a writing and signed by the person that's going to be bound by that writing that's ing to the statute of frauds now in contracts it is possible to have some oral agreements not with a deed to real property must be in writing secondly you've got to have a competent person signing that deed who signs the deed the grantor so the grantor must be a competent individual if we're talking about a natural person that grantor must be of a proper legal age which is 18 years and also must be mentally uh competent must have legal capacity there's that mental image uh uh mental uh element there now what about an uh an artificial person like a corporation or a partnership or maybe even an Executor uh or a guardian when you're talking about those people who are not acting in their own behalf but rather on behalf of someone else like a our official person or an estate there were concerned not with uh mental capacity or age but rather with with authority does this person have authority to sign that uh agreement uh that that contract we also have to identify the grantee who is the grantee that deed has to state who that person will be who's getting the the uh property there must be words of conveyance now no special words are required but typically we see words such as Grant convey and a sign those will get the job done and when you use those words you're generally implying uh the general warranty that we're talking about property description the property that you're conveying by the by this deed also has to be adequately described and that property description will probably be one of several different types it may be a platted description uh like a uh or a lot and block like in a platted subdivision it may be what we call a meets and Bounds description where the um uh property perimeter is described by landmarks and Compass directions and and distances and it may be in some states that property description may be based on a governmental rectangular survey and we don't use that system in Texas we generally use these other two but uh deeds in other many parts of the country do are based on a description from that governmental rectangular system a deed must have consideration what's consideration it's that thing of value that's exchanged for the deed and quite typically we're going to see considerations expressed in terms of cash a nominal cash value such as $10 and other good and valuable consideration sometimes you'll see a gift deed that will say uh for love and affection as a consideration doesn't matter what the consideration is it's just that the deed has to express that there was some sort of consideration we don't worry about whether that consideration was adequate the deed must be signed by the grantor not so much by the grantee not too often do we see a deed signed by the grantee some states will require it Texas does not but there may be an instance where the grantee might uh sign a deed the deed must be witnessed or acknowledged by a notary before it can be recorded we have to authenticate we have to validate that this grantor signature really was the valid signature of that gror uh and we do that through witnessing and uh Andor through uh a notary public signing an acknowledgement that that grantor was in fact the person that signed the deed and then of course the deed is not to uh complete the conveyance is not complete until it is delivered to the grantee you have to deliver the deed to the grantee if it's not delivered to the grantee the conveyance hasn't been completed so that's an overview of Deeds the type of deeds and the requirement of Deeds