TL;DR: In Florida you remove a name from a deed by recording a new deed in which the person being removed signs away their interest, usually with a quit claim deed. You cannot remove a living co-owner without their signature. There is no form, no fee, and no clerk in Lee County that will do it for you against their will. The two real exceptions are a co-owner who has died, and a court order.
This is the single most common question we get where the honest answer disappoints people. A lot of pages on this topic dance around it. We are going to say it plainly up front, then walk through the four situations where removing a name genuinely is straightforward paperwork, what it costs, and the one case that is not a document preparation job at all.
Lee County Document Preparation, Inc. has been preparing and recording real estate documents from Fort Myers since 1997. We are a non-attorney document preparation service. We prepare the document you direct us to prepare. We do not give legal advice and we do not represent anyone in a dispute. If a co-owner will not cooperate, that is a lawyer’s job, not ours. Where the line falls is covered in do I need a lawyer to file a deed in Florida.
How do you remove someone from a deed in Florida?
You remove someone from a Florida deed by preparing and recording a new deed in which that person conveys their interest to the remaining owner or owners. The person coming off the deed is the one who has to sign it, in front of two witnesses and a notary. The old deed is never edited or cancelled. The new deed simply supersedes it in the county’s official records.
Most of these are done with a quit claim deed, because the person leaving is not promising anything about the state of the title, they are just letting go of whatever interest they hold. If money is changing hands and the remaining owner wants title protection, a warranty deed is the better instrument. The difference is laid out in warranty deed versus quit claim deed.
Once we record the new deed with the Lee County Clerk of Court, the public record shows the change and the date it happened. Until it is recorded, nothing has effectively changed as far as title companies, lenders, and future buyers are concerned.
Can you remove someone from a deed without their consent?
No. You cannot remove a living person from a Florida deed without their signature. Florida law requires a conveyance of real property to be signed by the party giving up the interest, so a deed that removes someone without their voluntary signature is not a valid deed. Forging or pressuring a signature is fraud, not a shortcut.
This is where the rest of the internet gets vague, so here is the specific statutory hook. Section 689.01 of the Florida Statutes provides that an interest in land can only be transferred by a written instrument signed in the presence of two subscribing witnesses by the party making the transfer. The party making the transfer is the person coming off the deed. No signature from them, no transfer.
If a co-owner refuses to sign, the realistic paths are all legal ones, and none of them is document preparation. A buyout negotiated between the parties, a partition action to force a sale and split the proceeds, or a quiet title action where there is a genuine defect in how the name got on the deed in the first place. All three need a Florida real estate attorney. We will happily prepare the deed the moment there is an agreement or a court order, but we cannot manufacture either one.
The four situations where it is straightforward
Most people asking this question are in one of these, and all four are routine work.
- A co-owner who agrees to come off. A relative you added years ago, a former partner, a friend who helped you qualify for a loan. They sign a quit claim deed conveying their interest to you, and it records. This is the most common by a wide margin.
- A co-owner who has died. No signature needed, because there is nothing to sign. See the next section.
- A divorce that is final or in progress. The marital settlement agreement or final judgment normally directs who signs what. Because the tax treatment is different for spouses, we cover this separately in quit claim deeds and divorce in Florida.
- Moving property into or out of a trust or an LLC. Technically a transfer rather than a removal, but the mechanics are identical and it is often what someone actually needs.
What is not on that list: removing someone because they stopped paying, because they moved out, because they were never supposed to be on there, or because you have changed your mind. Those are real grievances and they still require either their signature or a judge.
How much does it cost to remove a name from a deed in Florida?
Removing a name from a Florida deed costs the same as any other deed transfer: a preparation fee, the Clerk’s recording charge, and documentary stamp tax if there is consideration. Our published fee schedule lists $225 to prepare a deed and $18.50 to record it, plus $8.50 per page beyond the first, with documentary stamps calculated at $.007 of the consideration and a $.70 minimum.
The variable that actually moves the number is consideration. The Florida Department of Revenue applies documentary stamp tax to deeds at $.70 per $100, or portion thereof, of the consideration paid in every county except Miami-Dade. If your brother signs off his half of a mortgage free property for nothing, the tax is nominal. If you are paying him $80,000 for his share, or he is being relieved of half of a mortgage balance, the taxable consideration is real and so is the bill.
Two costs that are not ours and are worth budgeting for separately: a title search, if you want to know what liens are attached to the interest coming off, and any payoff to satisfy a lien in the co-owner’s name. Our title search page explains what one turns up and why it matters here more than in most transfers. The full cost breakdown across doc stamps and county charges is in Florida documentary stamp tax and what a deed transfer really costs.
How do you remove a deceased person from a deed in Florida?
When a co-owner dies, you do not need a deed signed by them, because their interest has already passed by operation of law or through their estate. What you record instead is proof of death and, depending on how title was held, an affidavit that puts the change on the public record.
How title was held decides everything. If the property was held jointly with right of survivorship, or as tenancy by the entirety between spouses, the surviving owner’s ownership is generally automatic and the recording step is evidentiary. That is what an affidavit of surviving spouse does, recorded with a certified copy of the death certificate. If the property was held as tenancy in common, the deceased owner’s share went into their estate, and that usually means probate before anything can be cleaned up.
If a Lady Bird deed or enhanced life estate deed was recorded before death, the transfer happens automatically without probate, which is exactly the point of that instrument. If you are reading this because you want to spare your own family this step later, that is the tool to look at, and the comparison is in how to avoid probate in Lee County.
Getting it done in Lee County
Our three step process is the same here as for any deed. You complete a questionnaire identifying the property, every current owner, and who is coming off. We prepare the deed and send it out. The person being removed signs it in front of two witnesses and a notary, the original comes back to us, and we record it with the Lee County Clerk of Court and mail the recorded original to the remaining owner.
The execution step is where DIY attempts fail. Florida requires two witnesses in addition to the notary, and the Clerk also requires printed names and post office addresses on the page. We spell out every one of those requirements in Florida deed witness and notary requirements, because a rejected deed means tracking down a reluctant co-owner for a second signing, and that is a bad position to be in.
We serve Lee County and the surrounding area from 11595 Kelly Rd #215 in Fort Myers, including Cape Coral, Bonita Springs, Estero, and out to Naples and Marco Island. If the property is a timeshare, the process differs and is covered on our timeshare deed page. Mobile and manufactured homes titled as personal property do not use a deed at all, which is explained in mobile home title transfer in Florida.
Frequently asked questions
Can I remove my ex spouse from the deed after the divorce is final? Only if they sign, or if the final judgment itself transfers the property. A divorce decree does not automatically change the deed. Most people still need a recorded quit claim deed afterward. Details in quit claim deeds and divorce in Florida.
Does removing someone from the deed remove them from the mortgage? No. These are two separate contracts. The deed controls ownership, the mortgage and note control the debt. Someone who comes off the deed usually remains liable on the loan until it is refinanced or paid off. This catches people out constantly.
Do I need a lawyer to remove a name from a deed in Florida? Not if everyone agrees. Florida does not require an attorney to prepare or record a deed. You do need one if the other person will not sign, if there is a dispute over how their name got there, or if a court action is involved.
What if the co-owner cannot be found? Then this is not paperwork. An unlocatable co-owner generally means a partition or quiet title action, both of which require an attorney and a court. We cannot prepare a deed for a signature we cannot obtain.
Can I just record a new deed leaving their name off? No. Recording a deed that purports to convey away someone else’s interest without their signature does not remove their interest, and it can create liability for you. The Clerk records documents, it does not adjudicate ownership.
Need a deed prepared and recorded?
If the person coming off the deed is willing to sign, this is a short job. Start with the quit claim request form, check the fee schedule, or call 239-482-7900. You can also reach us through our contact page. We have been preparing quit claim deeds in Fort Myers and across Lee County since 1997.