Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Divorcing

After divorce, you would properly refer to yourself on deeds as "a single woman" rather than as divorced.

The term for the type of deed you have in mind is "quitclaim" not "quick claim."

The person or persons who is/are trustee(s) of the trust must sign the quitclaim deed, indicating that they sign in the capacity of trustee.

Drawing up deeds of any kind is tricky business to avoid mistakes that will cloud title and cause other problems down the line. Your divorce lawyer shouls assist or do this for you completely. If you are self-represented, you might want to have a title company draw up the document. They will probably want to sell you title insurance, which is probably a good thing for you to have.

You also need to give some consideration to three other aspects of your deal:

(1) You need to make sure your deed gets notarized and recorded, and that at the time of recording it is made clear to the recorder (by proper notation on the top of the deed or as locally required) that the deed is part of a marital settlement so you don't get reappraised;

(2) If there is a loan on the property, your marital settlement should handle the issue of who is responsible for the future payments, and the loan documents may need to be redrawn depending upon the terms of your deal with your "ex," but whatever they are, your lender should be made aware in writing of what is going on; and

(3) You need to make your property settlement, including the house deal, with full awareness of what it is worth in today's market; an appraisal for marital settlement purposes may be a good idea.