How to remove a name from a deed in Maryland

People ask us to take a name off a deed for many reasons: a divorce, one co-owner buying out another, a parent who added a child years ago and wants the home back in their own name. In every case, the change is made by a new deed recorded in the county land records. This guide explains who has to sign that deed, which taxes apply, and why the mortgage is usually the harder part. It is part of our deed transfers for Maryland families.

Who has to sign

A name cannot simply be crossed off a recorded deed. The owner whose name is coming off gives up their share by signing a new deed to the owners who remain. Usually every current owner signs that deed, and the remaining owners take the whole property.

If the person whose name is coming off will not or cannot sign, an ordinary deed will not do it. Depending on the situation, the answer may be a court order in a divorce, a court action between co-owners, or, if the owner lacks the capacity to sign, someone with legal authority to sign for them. Those are questions for your attorney.

If the owner has died, the rules are different: see transferring a deed after a death.

After a divorce

Your separation agreement or the divorce court’s order normally says who keeps the house and on what terms. The deed carries that out.

• Who signs. The spouse who is leaving signs a deed to the spouse who keeps the home. Maryland law lets one spouse deed their interest in a home held as tenants by the entirety directly to the other.
• What the court can order. A Maryland divorce court may settle disputes about who owns real property, but it may transfer ownership from one spouse to the other only in the cases Maryland law allows. One of them is the jointly owned family home: the court may order it transferred to one spouse if that spouse gets the other released from any loan secured by the home.
• Taxes. A deed between spouses or former spouses is not subject to recordation tax or the state transfer tax, even if one spouse pays the other for their share. County transfer taxes follow each county’s own law; we check them before recording.

We can prepare and record the deed once the terms are settled. For advice on the divorce itself, talk to your divorce attorney.

The mortgage is the harder part

Taking a name off the deed does not take that person off the mortgage. Anyone who signed the loan still owes it. That is why, after a divorce or buyout, the owner who keeps the home often refinances in their own name, which pays off the old joint loan and releases the other borrower. A refinance is a settlement in its own right, and we can handle it at the same time as the deed.

If there is no refinance, ask the lender whether it will release the departing borrower. Federal law stops a lender from calling the loan due on a home with fewer than five units when a divorce decree or separation agreement makes the borrower’s spouse an owner, but that protection is not a release from the debt.

Buyouts between co-owners

When a co-owner who is not your spouse sells you their share, the price you pay is consideration, and Maryland’s recordation tax and state transfer tax are charged on it, along with any mortgage you take over. One exemption helps families: when the property goes subject to a mortgage to a close relative (a child, parent, brother or sister, grandchild, grandparent, stepchild, stepparent or in-law), the loan balance the relative takes over is not counted. Tell us about any payment before the deed is drafted, so the taxes are figured correctly.

Taking back a share you gave

Parents who added a child to their deed sometimes want the home back in their own name. That takes a deed signed by the child, giving their share back. If the child pays nothing and takes over no loan, there is generally no consideration for the state taxes to apply to. If the child is married, ask your attorney whether the child’s spouse should sign too.

How the new deed is recorded

The new deed names who is giving up a share and who keeps the property, describes the property, and says how the remaining owners will hold title. Everyone signs before a notary, the county confirms the property taxes are paid and endorses the deed, and we record it with the clerk of the circuit court in the county where the home is. Some people ask for a quitclaim deed for this; that guide explains what the term means in Maryland.