Transfer of Title, Deeds, and Recording
Deeds and their promises
A valid deed needs an identifiable grantor and grantee, words of conveyance, a legal description, consideration (recited), the grantor's signature, and delivery with acceptance. Notarization is not required for validity but is generally required for recording. Warranties descend in order: general warranty (six covenants - seisin, right to convey, against encumbrances, quiet enjoyment, warranty forever, further assurances), special warranty (only the grantor's own acts), bargain and sale (implies consideration and seisin), and quitclaim (no covenants at all - it conveys whatever interest the grantor may have, if any).
Recording and title problems
Deeds are recorded with the county Recorder of Deeds - New Castle, Kent, or Sussex in Delaware. Recording protects a grantee against later claims but cannot cure a defective deed. Under race, notice, or race-notice statutes, the protected party is a subsequent purchaser for value without notice; a quitclaim grantee is often outside that protection. Notice can be actual, constructive (recording), or inquiry. Chain-of-title searches, lis pendens, and quiet title actions resolve disputes. Involuntary transfers include foreclosure, tax sale, partition, adverse possession, eminent domain, escheat, and intestate succession.
Traps
Delivery, not signature alone, transfers title; a deed found in a desk drawer may never have been delivered. A covenant of seisin is a present covenant; a covenant of warranty is a future covenant that runs with the land.
Worked example
Owner conveys to A, who delays recording. Owner then conveys to B, a purchaser for value with no actual or constructive notice, who records first. In a notice or race-notice jurisdiction, B prevails - A's failure to record left the public record clean.