Special Warranty Deed

The seller has several types of deeds, which he can prepare when he decides to sell his property and therefore, his right of ownership. A special warranty deed is one of these deeds, along with the bargain and sale deed, the general warranty deed and the quit claim deed. The special warranty deed, one can say, is a slightly modified version of the general warranty deed, as you will find out by the end of this article.

Explaining a Special Warranty Deed?

As the definition will doubtlessly tell you, the deed is one in which the grantor (seller) limits the warranty given to the grantee (buyer) to anyone claiming by, from, through, or under the grantor. The grantor does not warrant against any title defects arising from conditions, that existed before he owned the property.

Since towards the end of a legal terms, you will often find that you have forgotten all about the start, let me explain what is a special warranty deed very simply. If you know what is the general warranty deed, you know that the seller or the grantor promises a set of 6 covenants. These covenants state that the seller is willing to defend the buyer from any problems related to a bad title to the property that may have arisen any time since the property had come into existence. Now clearly, there is a dodgy bit of detail as to why the current seller should protect the buyer from a bad title which is not really his doing. If the previous resident and owner gave it a bad title, why should the grantor in this deal come and defend it? This sort of arrangement is not realistic at all, more so when the property for sale is a pretty old one and has passed through several hands.

With the special warranty deed, the grantor assumes as much responsibility as he ideally should. The grantor promises to stave off any encumbrances that may arise due to his ownership, or if he is responsible for the bad title to the real estate. What and who came before him and did what with the land, does not concern the present in any way and neither does he care much for it either.

In a way, this sort of deed is more favorable to the buyer than say the quit claim deed or the bargain and sale deed. Unlike the quit claim deed, the deed provides a modicum of protection to the buyer. It gives the buyer a bit of security that if the present grantor has conducted some sort of business, all the buyer has to do is point the finger in the direction of the grantor and he will subsequently take care of everything.

The special warranty deed form, by way of certain covenants, does promise to save the buyer any encumbrances that may arise on account of bad title, but restrict the liability only up to the present grantor. The bad title creation by previous owners still remains a matter which the buyer - should he buy - has to make his way with.