How much does it cost to file a quit claim deed in Illinois?

There are two costs. Recording the deed with the county runs around $100 in Cook County, and each county sets its own fee. Transfer tax is separate: 50 cents per $500 of value to the state, 25 cents per $500 to the county, and another $5.25 per $500 inside Chicago. Most family and trust transfers list under $100 of consideration, which is exempt, so no transfer tax is owed.

What are the requirements for a quit claim deed in Cook County?

The deed needs both names, the price or other consideration, the full legal description, the Property Index Number, the new owner's address, the address for future tax bills, and the name and address of whoever prepared it, which 55 ILCS 5/3-5022 requires. It must be notarized and printed in black ink on letter size paper, with half inch margins and a blank three by five inch space in the upper right corner for the Clerk's stamp.

What are the disadvantages of a quit claim deed?

It comes with no promises. A warranty deed promises that the seller owns the property, that nothing is attached to it, and that the seller will defend the title in court. A quit claim deed promises none of that. It also does not cover title the signer picks up later, it usually does not give the new owner title insurance, and it does not take anyone off the mortgage.

Do I need a lawyer to file a quit claim deed in Illinois?

No law requires one, and forms are sold everywhere. Most Illinois deeds are still prepared by attorneys, for good reason. The legal description has to be exact, the tax exemption has to be worded correctly, and a mistake in how title is held can surface years later when the property sells. Illinois closings run through attorneys by custom, so most people already have one.

Who pays the taxes on a quit claim deed?

The state and county transfer tax is a tax on transferring title, and the statute does not name who pays, so by custom the seller pays and the contract can change it. Chicago sets its own split by ordinance: the buyer pays $3.75 per $500 and the seller pays $1.50 per $500. Most family and trust transfers are exempt because the consideration is under $100. Property tax exemptions are a separate issue, so check with the county assessor before recording.

Will a quit claim deed hold up in court?

Yes, if it is signed, notarized and handed over properly. It is a valid transfer of whatever the signer owned. What it cannot do is win an argument about whether the signer had good title, because the deed never promised that. A forged deed is different. A forgery transfers nothing, but removing it from the record takes a court case.

What is better than a quit claim deed?

It depends on the job. Buying from someone you do not know calls for a warranty deed and an owner's title insurance policy. Moving property between spouses or fixing how a name reads on title is exactly what a quit claim deed is for, and it is the cheapest way to do it. For funding a living trust, ask the attorney who drafted the trust: many use a deed in trust or a special warranty deed instead, to keep a warranty link back to your title policy.

Quit Claim Deeds in Illinois: What They Do and Don't Do

Q: What does a quit claim deed actually transfer in Illinois?

It transfers whatever ownership the signer has at that moment, and nothing more. If they own the whole property, you get the whole property. If they own half, you get half. If they own nothing, you get nothing, and you cannot sue them over it, because a quit claim deed makes no promises about the title. The rule is in 765 ILCS 5/10.

A quit claim deed is one page. It costs about a hundred dollars to record. Any form site will sell you one for $30.

That is the problem. It looks like a simple document, so people assume it does more than it does. Under Illinois law it does one narrow thing, and the gap between what people think they are getting and what they actually get is where the trouble starts. It is also the document fraudsters reach for when they steal property.

The short answer: a quit claim deed hands over whatever ownership the signer happens to have, with no promises attached. It does not prove they own anything. It does not move the mortgage. And apart from one estate planning exception below, it does not give the new owner title insurance.

A quick note on terms. You will see it written as quit claim and as quitclaim, and they mean the same thing. The person signing the deed is the grantor. The person receiving it is the grantee. Consideration is what was paid, if anything.

What does a quit claim deed actually transfer in Illinois?

It transfers whatever the grantor owns at the moment they sign, and nothing more.

The Illinois statute, 765 ILCS 5/10, uses the phrase “convey and quit claim to [the grantee] all interest in the following described real estate.”

All interest. Not good title. Not clear title. Whatever the grantor happens to hold, which might be the whole property, might be a half share, and might be nothing at all.

The same statute adds a limit that catches people. The deed “shall not extend to after acquired title unless words are added expressing such intention.” In plain terms: if your grandmother quit claims you a parcel she does not own yet, and inherits it two years later, the deed did not reach forward and grab it. You need a new deed.

What is the difference between a quit claim deed and a warranty deed?

A warranty deed comes with promises. A quit claim deed comes with none.

Illinois spells the promises out in 765 ILCS 5/9. The words “conveys and warrants” carry three of them: the grantor owns the property, nothing is attached to it that was not disclosed, and the grantor will defend your title if someone challenges it.

	Quit claim deed	Warranty deed
Transfers ownership	Yes, whatever the grantor has	Yes
Promises the grantor owns it	No	Yes
Promises no liens or claims	No	Yes
Grantor defends your title	No	Yes
Can you sue if title is bad	No	Yes
Typical use	Family transfers, divorce	Buying from a stranger

Cornell’s legal dictionary says it plainly: a quit claim conveys the grantor’s present interest, if any, “without representing, covenanting, or warranting that the title is good.”

So if the title turns out to be defective, there is nothing to sue over. No promise was made.

When should you use a quit claim deed?

Use it when everyone already knows each other and nobody is relying on a promise about the title. Common Illinois examples:

Divorce, where one spouse comes off title under a settlement
Adding or removing a spouse or family member
Fixing how a name reads on title after a marriage
Correcting an error in a deed that was already recorded

Do not use it to buy property from someone you do not know. There you want the promises, a title search, and an owner’s policy behind them.

Funding a living trust deserves its own note. People do use quit claim deeds to move a home into their own trust, and it works as a transfer. Many Illinois attorneys still reach for a deed in trust or a special warranty deed instead. The reason is the warranty link: a deed with warranties keeps a thread running from the trust back to you, and back to the policy that insured you. Ask the attorney who drafted the trust which deed they want. This is their call, not a form you should pull off the internet.

Does a quit claim deed remove you from the mortgage?

No. Signing a deed has no effect on the loan.

The deed moves the title. The promissory note is a separate contract. If your name is on the loan and you quit claim the house to your ex spouse, you gave away the house and kept the debt. Only the lender can release you, through a refinance, a formal assumption, or a payoff.

There is a second mortgage issue worth knowing. Most loans have a due on sale clause, which lets the lender demand the full balance if the property changes hands. A federal law, the Garn-St Germain Act, blocks that for certain transfers of homes with one to four units: a transfer to a spouse or children, a transfer under a divorce decree or property settlement where the spouse becomes an owner, and a transfer to a relative when the borrower dies. All three require the person receiving the property to live there or move in. A transfer into a living trust where the borrower stays a beneficiary is its own category with its own conditions. Check the rules at 12 CFR 191.5 before counting on any of them.

Does the new owner get the seller’s title insurance?

No. An owner’s title insurance policy covers the person named on it, not whoever owns the property later.

The policy’s continuation of coverage condition keeps protecting the original owner in only three situations: they still hold an interest in the property, they hold a mortgage from someone they sold to, or they are still on the hook for promises they made when they transferred it. A quit claim deed makes no promises, so that third door never opens.

So the person receiving the property usually gets nothing from the old policy. If they want coverage, they need a new title search and a new policy in their own name. Worth saying out loud to any client who assumes the old policy came along with the house.

There is one exception that matters in estate planning. The current ALTA owner’s policy defines who counts as an Insured to include the grantee under a deed delivered without valuable consideration when that grantee is the trustee or beneficiary of a trust the insured created for estate planning. In plain terms, moving your own home into your own revocable trust usually keeps the coverage in place. Moving it to another person by quit claim does not. Policies differ by edition and underwriter, so have your title company confirm before you rely on it.

Why do fraudsters use quit claim deeds?

Because the deed makes no claims about who owns the property, and nobody at the recorder’s office checks.

The recorder’s job is to post what was filed, not to verify that it is true. Illinois law, 765 ILCS 5/30, makes an unrecorded deed void against later buyers and creditors who did not know about it. The system cares enormously about what was filed and when. It cannot confirm that the person who signed was really the owner.

That is the opening. A quit claim deed is short, carries no warranties, and looks routine at the counter. A forged one costs about the price of dinner to record, and once it is on the public record it sits in the chain of title until a judge removes it.

I wrote before about seller impersonation and the fake power of attorney, where the fraud runs through a closing. Deed fraud skips the closing and goes straight to the counter.

The targets follow a pattern. The National Association of Realtors’ 2025 Deed and Title Fraud Survey found 62 percent of reported title fraud cases involved vacant land, against 12 percent for owner occupied homes. ABC News reported in 2024 that the FBI had seen a 500 percent rise in vacant land fraud over four years. No mortgage, no occupant, an owner living out of state. Nobody is watching.

Two things help.

Sign up for your county’s fraud alert. The Cook County Clerk runs a free Property Fraud Alert that calls or emails you whenever anything is recorded against your PIN. The Clerk is honest about the limits: it is “a notice of recordation, not a freeze on title.” Nothing can stop a forged document from being filed, because the record is public. What the alert does is shrink the gap between the filing and the day you find out. Most of the surrounding collar counties run something similar.

Ask what your title company does on the front end. I wrote about property monitoring after closing and about identity verification for vacant land sellers. Checking identity before a sale closes and watching the record after it are two halves of the same job.

How much does it cost to record a quit claim deed in Illinois?

Two separate costs, and people mix them up constantly.

Recording is a flat fee to the county. A standard deed in Cook County runs around $100. Documents that do not meet the formatting rules cost more. Every county sets its own schedule, so check the recorder or clerk where the property sits.

Transfer tax is based on value: 50 cents per $500 to the state, 25 cents per $500 to the county, and inside Chicago another $5.25 per $500, split $3.75 to the buyer and $1.50 to the seller. A taxable transfer needs a PTAX-203 declaration, and Chicago has required those to be filed online through MyDec since 2016. If the property is in Chicago, I walk through the full picture in Chicago transfer tax: what it costs and who pays, including the water certificate and zoning certificate the city wants before it issues a stamp.

Here is what saves most families the tax. A transfer where the consideration is under $100 is exempt under 35 ILCS 200/31-45(e). That covers ordinary gift, divorce and trust transfers, which is why “consideration less than $100” appears on so many recorded quit claim deeds. The exemption is not automatic. The statement has to appear on the face of the deed, and it has to be the right one.

What does Cook County require on the deed?

To be recordable, it needs:

Both names, and the new owner’s address
The full legal description, plus the Property Index Number
The address for future tax bills
The name and address of whoever prepared it, required by 55 ILCS 5/3-5022
A notarized signature
Letter size paper, black ink, half inch margins, and a blank three by five inch space in the upper right corner for the Clerk’s stamp, per 55 ILCS 5/3-5018

One item that is easy to forget: homestead and senior property tax exemptions follow the owner of record who lives there. Move a property into a trust, or add or remove an owner, and the exemption may need attention. Call the county assessor before recording, not after the tax bill shows up.

The short version

A quit claim deed is a precise tool with a narrow job. It moves whatever the grantor has, promises nothing about what that is, and leaves the mortgage and the title insurance where they were. For family transfers and divorces in Illinois, that is usually all you need. For buying from a stranger, it is the wrong document.

And if you own a vacant lot in Illinois that you have not thought about in a decade, the same one page document that makes family transfers easy is the one someone would use to sell it out from under you. Your county’s free alert takes about five minutes to set up.

If a deed on your desk does not look right, or a client is asking which deed they need, let’s talk.

Rates and fees are current as of September 2026. This is general information about Illinois practice, not legal advice for your transaction. Your attorney should prepare and review your deed.