Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

If you want to pay documentary transfer tax you can put that answer. If your inlaws are quitclaiming to you as a gift, you put that it is a gift and don't have to pay documentary transfer

tax. I answered a question similar to this several weeks ago.

Your county recorder's office usually has a website that explains all of this, if you persist in not believing me. http://www.ccclerkrec.us/connect/site/index.jsp?menuItemId=4

If you are buying out their interest, it is calculated based on what is provided in that web page.

What you really are missing is that what you proposed to do may have massive unintended tax consequences, unless you are buying out the inlaws at full fair market value of 1/2 the property. You may face gift tax, you may face documentary transfer tax, though you should be able to avoid that if you do it differently than you are planning, you may face property tax increases, and you will be losing a possible opportunity to take a stepped up basis in the property when you sell it. If you want this straightend out for you, give my office a call.

Indeed. Your documentary tax questions reflect a lack of understanding about property transfers within familiies. An inter-generation property transfer should be made based upon a plan developed by a professional who understands the tax consequences. You are probably trying to avoid probate, or perhaps avoid a creditor, or perhaps make sure you aren't disinherited later on. Get comprehensive advice. Another couple of issues you need to watch out for are making errors in the granting clause of the quitclaim deed, or its property description, and the possibility that the change of ownership is incompatible with some existing financing, where someone responsible for the mortgage is no longer an owner and/or where a due-on-sale clause in a loan is triggered.