How to Add or Remove a Name from a Deed in Florida

Adding or removing a name from a property deed in Florida requires executing a new deed and recording it with the county. The most common instrument is a quitclaim deed, which transfers whatever ownership interest the grantor holds without making any guarantees about the title.

Choosing the wrong co-ownership type can expose the property to a new owner’s creditors. Adding a child to the deed rather than using a lady bird deed gives up the stepped-up basis on the share the child receives.

How to Add a Name to a Florida Deed

Adding someone to a deed means the current owner signs a new deed conveying an interest in the property to the owner and the new person together. The current owner is both the grantor (transferring party) and one of the grantees (receiving parties). Only the grantor signs the deed. The person being added does not need to sign.

Before drafting the deed, the owner must decide how the property will be held after the transfer. Florida recognizes several forms of co-ownership, and the choice affects both creditor protection and what happens when one owner dies.

Tenancy by the entirety is available only to married couples. Property held as tenants by the entirety is protected from the individual creditors of either spouse. When one spouse dies, the surviving spouse automatically owns the entire property without probate. Adding a spouse as tenants by the entirety is one of the most common and most protective deed changes in Florida.

Under Florida Statute § 689.11, a spouse who holds title may deed the property to both spouses jointly, and the conveyance creates an estate by the entirety. A deed to the other spouse alone also works, provided it states the purpose to create the estate. Either route avoids the intermediary third party the common law once required, when the owner had to deed the property to a straw man who deeded it back to both spouses.

Joint tenancy with right of survivorship allows two or more people to hold title together. When one owner dies, the surviving owners automatically receive the deceased owner’s share. Joint tenancy does not provide the creditor protection that tenancy by the entirety provides.

Tenancy in common gives each owner a separate, divisible share of the property. There is no right of survivorship. When one owner dies, that owner’s share passes through their estate, by will or intestacy, rather than automatically to the other owners.

The deed should state the form of co-ownership. Where it does not, Florida Statute § 689.15 makes tenancy in common the default, because survivorship has to be expressly provided for. Married couples are the exception. A deed to both spouses is presumed to create a tenancy by the entirety unless the deed says otherwise, and it does not have to describe the grantees as spouses for the presumption to apply. Naming the estate expressly still removes any argument.

How to Remove a Name from a Florida Deed

Removing a name from a deed requires the person being removed to execute a quitclaim deed voluntarily, transferring their interest to the remaining owners. Florida law does not allow one owner to unilaterally remove another owner from a deed. The person being removed must sign willingly.

If the person refuses to sign, the remaining owners can file a partition action under Florida Statute § 64.031, which asks the court to divide the property or order it sold with proceeds distributed among the owners. Partition is a lawsuit, not a simple filing, and it can take months and cost thousands of dollars in attorney fees.

Where the co-ownership came out of a family inheritance, the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (§§ 64.201 through 64.290) applies instead. The court values the property, gives the other cotenants the first right to buy out the owner who filed, and prefers dividing the land over selling it.

The common removal situations are a divorce, the end of a non-marital relationship, and a co-owner’s death. In a divorce, the marital settlement agreement or final judgment typically requires one spouse to execute a quitclaim deed transferring their interest to the other.

A deed between spouses or former spouses carrying out a dissolution of marriage owes no documentary stamp tax on the marital home, whatever the mortgage balance, under Florida Statute § 201.02(7)(a). The exemption reaches the marital home only, and tax paid on a deed recorded up to a year before the dissolution is refundable.

Removing a Deceased Owner’s Name

How a deceased owner’s name is removed depends on how title was held. If the property was held as tenants by the entirety or joint tenants with right of survivorship, no new deed is required. The surviving owner clears the record by filing a certified death certificate that does not show the cause of death, together with a DR-312 Affidavit of No Florida Estate Tax Due.

The DR-312 releases the estate tax lien that Florida law places on a decedent’s property, though Florida has collected no estate tax on deaths after 2004. Where the owners were married, title companies also ask for an Affidavit of Continuous Marriage.

The Affidavit of Continuous Marriage establishes that the marriage was intact at the time of death. A non-identification affidavit may also be needed if someone with a similar name appears in the public records with judgments or liens.

A tenancy in common share does not pass by survivorship. Where the property was the decedent’s protected homestead, that share is not an asset of the estate at all. It passes to the heirs or devisees by operation of law, and the usual clearing document is a court order determining homestead status.

Where the share is not protected homestead, it is administered in the estate. The personal representative can convey it under a power of sale in the will, and without that power no title passes until the court authorizes or confirms the sale.

When to Use a Quitclaim Deed vs. a Warranty Deed

A quitclaim deed transfers whatever interest the grantor holds, if any, without warranting that the title is clear or that the grantor actually owns what is being transferred. Most deed changes run between family members, spouses, or co-owners who already know the ownership situation, so the missing title warranty is not a practical concern.

A warranty deed, by contrast, includes the grantor’s guarantee that the title is clear and that the grantor will defend the grantee against any title claims. Warranty deeds are used primarily in arm’s-length sales to unrelated buyers. For adding a spouse, transferring to a trust, or resolving a co-ownership situation, a quitclaim deed is appropriate.

Florida Statute § 689.025 prescribes the form of a quitclaim deed. The deed must follow that form, which calls for the full legal name and post office address of both the grantor and the grantee, the consideration, the county, and the legal description. It must also leave a blank space for the parcel identification number, though omitting the number does not affect the deed’s validity or its recordability.

Two other statutes supply the execution and recording requirements. Florida Statute § 689.01 requires the grantor to sign in the presence of two subscribing witnesses. The recording statute, § 695.26, requires each signer’s and each witness’s name and post office address to be printed on the instrument. The witness address requirement took effect January 1, 2024, and recording also requires a notarial acknowledgment.

If the property is homestead and the grantor is married, a conveyance to anyone outside the marriage requires both spouses to sign, regardless of whose name is on the title. That requirement comes from Article X, Section 4(c) of the Florida Constitution, and it reaches homestead only. Non-homestead property carries no joinder requirement. A deed signed by only one spouse when both signatures are required is void.

Adding a spouse to solely owned homestead is the exception. The same constitutional provision lets a married owner transfer title to an estate by the entirety with the spouse. The Florida Supreme Court held in Jameson v. Jameson, 387 So. 2d 351 (Fla. 1980), that this deed requires no spousal joinder. Section 689.11 points the same way, and adds that the grantee spouse need not sign the conveyance.

After execution, the deed must be recorded in the official records of the county where the property is located. Florida Statute § 28.24 sets the recording fees: $10 for the first page, $8.50 for each additional page, and $1 for each name beyond the first four.

Tax Consequences of Changing a Deed

Adding someone to a deed in Florida can trigger documentary stamp tax at $0.70 per $100 of consideration, or any fraction of $100. When no money changes hands, the consideration for tax purposes is typically the proportionate share of any mortgage encumbering the property. Miami-Dade County uses its own rates: 60 cents per $100 on a single-family residence, and 60 cents plus a 45-cent surtax per $100 on anything else.

A deed between spouses on homestead property owes no tax when the only consideration is a mortgage or other lien already on the property. That exemption, in § 201.02(7)(b), runs in all three directions: one spouse to the other, one spouse to both, and both spouses to one. It does not reach non-homestead property. Adding a spouse to a mortgaged rental or vacation home is typically taxed on the spouse’s proportionate share of the mortgage balance, the same as adding a child.

Adding a non-spouse to the deed may also constitute a taxable gift for federal purposes. The gift equals the value of the interest the child receives. The owner must file a gift tax return (Form 709) and apply the gift, net of the $19,000 annual exclusion for 2026, against a lifetime gift and estate tax exemption that stands at $15 million. No gift tax is typically owed unless the owner has exhausted the exemption, but the reporting obligation exists regardless.

Adding a child to the deed eliminates the stepped-up basis on the transferred share. If the owner later dies, only the owner’s retained share receives a stepped-up basis under IRC § 1014. The child’s share retains the owner’s original cost basis, meaning the child will owe capital gains tax on all appreciation that occurred during the owner’s lifetime.

That is the result where the child takes as a tenant in common, which is the default when the deed is silent. A deed that instead creates a joint tenancy with right of survivorship can produce the opposite answer. Because the parent supplied all of the consideration, IRC § 2040 puts the whole property back in the parent’s estate, and the survivor’s basis steps up with it. The outcome therefore turns on deed wording most families never consider.

Owners whose estate plan calls for passing property to children while skipping probate are almost always better served by a lady bird deed than by adding the child now. A lady bird deed avoids probate, preserves the full stepped-up basis, triggers no gift tax, and allows the owner to retain complete control. Adding a child to the deed creates an immediate co-ownership that cannot be undone without the child’s consent. It also exposes the property to the child’s creditors and produces worse tax results.

How a Deed Change Affects Florida Homestead

Florida’s homestead exemption protects the owner’s primary residence from forced sale by most creditors. That protection comes from Article X, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution. Adding a non-spouse co-owner to the deed does not extend the homestead exemption to the new owner’s share.

If the owner adds a child to the deed, the child’s interest is not protected by the owner’s homestead exemption. A creditor who wins a judgment against the child can levy on the child’s share and sell it. The buyer of that share becomes a co-owner and can then force a partition sale of the entire property. The owner’s homestead does not stop a partition suit brought by a co-owner.

The property tax homestead exemption under Florida Statute § 196.031 is a separate protection. Adding a co-owner does not disqualify the owner from it, but it can shrink it.

Where the added owner does not live in the property and takes as a tenant in common, § 196.031(1)(a) limits the exemption to the resident owners’ proportionate share of the assessed value, so a 50% addition halves it. The statute makes an exception for title held by the entireties or jointly with right of survivorship, where the resident owner keeps the full exemption. Naming the estate in the deed therefore has a property tax consequence as well as a creditor one.

Florida’s Save Our Homes amendment caps the annual increase in a homestead’s assessed value at 3% or the change in the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower. Certain deed transfers can reset the assessed value to full market value, eliminating years of accumulated savings. A property homesteaded for 15 years may have an assessed value more than $100,000 below market value, and a non-exempt transfer erases that savings entirely.

Transfers between spouses, transfers on a dissolution of marriage, and transfers into a revocable trust where the grantor remains entitled to the exemption are not changes of ownership under Florida Statute § 193.155(3)(a). Neither is adding a name. A deed on which the owner is listed as both grantor and grantee, with another person added as a grantee, keeps the cap in place so long as the owner stays entitled to the exemption.

The cap resets if the newly added owner applies for a homestead exemption on the property, and it resets on an outright gift of the home to a child. When a reset does happen, the whole property is reassessed at just value the following January 1, not just the share that moved.

How a Deed Change Affects the Mortgage

Changing the deed does not change the mortgage. If the owner has a mortgage and adds someone to the deed, the owner remains personally liable on the loan. The lender’s lien remains on the property regardless of who is on the deed. Removing a name from the deed does not release that person from mortgage liability either. The only way to remove someone from a mortgage obligation is to refinance the loan or obtain a formal release from the lender.

Most residential mortgages contain a due-on-sale clause allowing the lender to accelerate the loan if the property is transferred without consent. The federal Garn-St. Germain Act bars enforcement on a loan secured by residential property of fewer than five dwelling units for a defined set of transfers.

Those include a transfer to the borrower’s spouse or children, a transfer to a relative after the borrower’s death, and a transfer to a surviving joint tenant or tenant by the entireties. They also include a transfer to a former spouse under a divorce decree or settlement, and a transfer into a revocable trust in which the borrower stays a beneficiary and keeps living in the home.

Adding a child to the deed falls inside that list, while transfers to unrelated parties and to most LLCs fall outside it. Lenders rarely accelerate a performing loan on an occupied home.

How Much Does It Cost to Add or Remove a Name from a Deed in Florida?

Attorney fees to prepare and record a quitclaim deed in Florida typically range from $400 to $750. Recording the deed costs under $20 for a typical two-page instrument. Documentary stamp tax runs from the 70-cent minimum on an unencumbered transfer to several thousand dollars where a large mortgage balance supplies the consideration.

Removing a deceased owner’s name without probate—recording the death certificate, affidavits, and tax forms—typically costs $750 to $1,200 including attorney fees and recording costs. If the property was held as tenants in common and probate is required, the cost increases substantially.