A warranty deed is a common real estate deed in North Carolina used to transfer title to real property. A typical warranty deed contains covenants of seisin, right to convey, marketability of title, freedom from encumbrances, and covenants of warranty from the grantor to the grantee. The North Carolina General Statutes do not provide a statutory form for real estate deeds.

In order to be recorded in North Carolina, a warranty deed must be signed and properly acknowledged by the grantor before an officer authorized by the state to take acknowledgments of deeds. An individual form for acknowledgment by a grantor is presented in 47 38 of the North Carolina Statutes. If a document has been executed and acknowledged in a state other than North Carolina, the deed must conform to North Carolina law in order to be recorded. Documents must be executed and acknowledged in strict compliance with the North Carolina acknowledgment provisions in order to be recorded and to provide constructive notice.

No conveyance of land in North Carolina will be valid to pass any property interest as against lien creditors or purchasers for a valuable consideration from the donor, bargainer, or lesser but from the time it is registered in the county where the land lies, or if the land is in more than one county, until the conveyance is registered in each such county. Unless it is otherwise stated on the warranty deed or on a separate registered instrument executed by the party whose priority interest is adversely affected, instruments registered in the office of the register of deeds will have priority based on the order of registration as determined by the time of registration. If instruments are registered simultaneously, then priority is determined by the earliest document number set forth on the registered instrument or the sequential book and page number ( 47 18). This is known as a pure race statute.

(North Carolina WD Package includes form, guidelines, and completed example)

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