Requirements

Grantee’s Addresses (§ 47-10-07): The Grantee’s post office address, as well as his or her street address (if known and if within the corporate boundaries of a city), must be included in the deed.

Statement of Full Consideration (§ 11-18-02.2): The face of the deed needs to contain:

• The full consideration (money) paid for the property, or
• A statement that makes it known why the Grantee is exempt from providing the statement, in line with the exemptions listed in Subsection 6 of § 11-18-02.2.

Signing requirements (§ 47-10-15): The completed deed needs to be signed by the Grantor and notarized.

How to File

Once the form has been completed and signed by all necessary parties, it needs to be brought to the Office of the County Recorder for filing. The office selected needs to be located within the same county as the real property. The Grantor (or other filer) should be prepared to pay a fee for the filing.

§ 47-19-19 establishes North Dakota as a “race-notice recording statute” jurisdiction. The most notable implication of this statute is that the Deed must be recorded as it constitutes as “notice of the contents… to all persons.” If another party concludes that the property is free from all other claims because none are recorded, they are within their rights to establish and subsequently record a conveyance concerning that property. Upon doing so, their claim will be recognized in law over any unrecorded claims.

Recording the Deed as soon as possible entrenches its validity in law, and in turn stamps out the possibility that another party will beat them in recording their conveyance for the very same dwelling.

How to Write

Step 1 – Download

Save the deed in Adobe PDF (.pdf).

Step 2 – Date

Enter the full date the Grantor is completing the form.

Step 3 – Grantor & Grantee

Beneath the date, enter the full name of the Grantor followed by the full name of the Grantee. In the proceeding field, enter the Grantee’s post office address.

Step 5 – Consideration

The “consideration” is the monetary amount the Grantee is paying for the property. Because the deed is most commonly used for gifting property, a value such as a single dollar can be written. The first space is for spelling out the amount with words (“one-dollar and zero cents”), and the second field is for writing the amount with numbers (“$1.00”).

Step 6 – County & Property Description

Enter the name of the county the property is located in. Then, enter the official description of the property. In most cases, this should be copied over from the previous deed.

Step 7 – Grantor Signature

Once the form has been completed, the Grantor will need to sign their name in view of a Notary Public.

Step 8 – Grantee Exemption

ONLY IF the Grantee is exempt from providing a report of the full consideration should they sign and date their name onto the two fields provided. The exemptions can be found at § 11-18-02.2(6).

Step 9 – Notarization

The space from “State of North Dakota” to “(Seal)” is to be completed by a Notary Public ONLY at the time of the Grantor’s signature. The bottom section of the deed that is in a smaller font than the rest of the form is to be completed by the recorder’s office ONLY.