A deed in real estate dealings is essentially an implementation and the main responsibility of a deed is to transfer the title of the property from the owners (granters) to the new owners also known as the (grantee). These owners can be an individual or they can be an organization. The draft of the deed has to contain the name of the current owner of the property, the name of the new owner, the description of the property in legal terms and most importantly the signatures of the current owner of the property. The deed also typically explains the position of the title of the property against the new owners. The main intention of this article is to explain the details of one of the most common types of deeds in Virginia known as the special warranty deed Virginia. This will help you to understand how this deed will help you.
What Is A Warranty Deed?
Before we explain the special warranty let us explain what exactly is a warranty deed?
The law in every state of the US mandates both buyers and the sellers to draft a deed whenever a seller of a real estate property (individual or an organization) sells a property to a buyer. The deed draft actually acts as an instrument that will grant the title of the property to the buyer.
There are two kinds of warranty deeds:
- Special Warranty Deed
- General Warranty Deed
These are the types of deeds that are wholly responsible to protect the rights of the buyers; they contain warranties, insurances or covenants that will ensure that the buyers are protected.
The primary purpose of the deed is to transfer the legal title of the property to the buyers by making certain the individual or the organization that is selling a property is the lawful owner of that property and the title that is owned by the seller is marketable, meaning the title is free of any liens. The deeds for Special and General Warranties are structured with six covenants and the main purpose of these covenants is to make sure that the seller keeps their promise that they made in the covenants. We will discuss these six covenants in a bit, before that let us explain the special warranty deed.
What Is Special Warranty Deed Virginia?
General warranty deed allows the buyers of the property to pursue a legal action against a property by bringing a suit against the previous owners of the property in case of a breach against the covenants of a deed. The buyers can bring a lawsuit against the previous owners if the breaches in the deed are done by any previous owners of a property.
Special warranty deed is one step below a General Warranty deed as it does not allow the buyers to pursue a legal action against the previous owners if the breaches in the covenants were caused by any owner of the property in the history.
Now there are six types of covenants in warranty deeds and all of them are divided into two main categories, namely Present Covenants and Future Covenants. Special warranty deeds only cover covenants that fall under the Present Covenants category and these are the ones we’ll discuss.
Present Covenants
Covenant of Seisin : Covenant of Seisin is basically a promise made by the owner of the property (The Granter) that they are the rightful owner of the property being sold and they actually own the property.
No Encumbrances : It is essentially a promise made by the seller that the property being sold won’t cause the new owners to suffer from any issues such as liens, mortgages, leases, easements, taxation or any other legal troubles that may cause the buyers any discomfort or may reduce the property’s overall value.
Right to convey : This covenant ensures that the sellers are mandated by the law to transfer the property to the buyers. For this covenant to be in affect; it must be the case that the seller must own the property itself to have the right to convey the property.
At Fox & Moghul – Attorneys at Law we help out our clients to draft and understand these warranty deeds, kindly, get in touch with us.
Fox & Moghul – Attorneys at Law
Address: 3871 Plaza Dr, Fairfax, VA 22030, United States
