Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California

Re: getting on real estate title

The form you are looking for is a deed. Two kinds are in common use in California, the quitclaim deed and the grant deed. The main difference is that the former carries with it no warranties as to the grantor's title, while the latter warrants good title to the interest being transferred.

Two common mistakes made by non-lawyers in trying to fill in stationery-store or online download blank deed forms are (1) making a mistake in the legal description of the property itself, and (2) misdescribing the interest therein intended to be transferred.

It is sometimes also a mistake to give a half interest (or any other partial interest) to someone else. Are you making a gift? There can be gift, capital gains and property tax issues that will bite back later when the taxing authorities notice the deal, as they almost always do after the transaction become "of record."

If this is being done for estate-planning or wealth-transfer purposes, there is probably a better way!

Also, sometimes people transfer their property to protect it from creditors. Probably not here, because you're only giving up a partial interest, and most debt-evasion schemes involve the potential debtor giving his entire interest to a relative. This also doesn't work; the creditor finds out from the public record, then sues both the transferor and the transferee for a fraudulent transfer, thus un-doing the deal and getting both in hot water. I only mention this because other people read these postings, researching their ideas.