Corrective Deeds – How do you fix a defective deed?

A defective deed can prevent title to real property from being conveyed to a grantee. If a defect in a deed causes title not to pass to a grantee, then a corrective deed can be the solution to resolving the defect. A couple common defects that can be fixed with a corrective deed include:

Legal description – If there is a typo in the legal description, then it can be corrected using a corrective deed.

Homestead – If the grantor is married, then failure to include a non-homestead clause or failure of the grantor’s spouse to join the deed will require a corrective deed.

For a corrective deed to be effective, you will need the party who was the grantor in the defective deed to sign the corrective deed with all the same formalities. Thus, the corrective deed will need to be signed by the grantor, witnessed by two disinterested witnesses, and notarized.

It is good practice for the corrective deed to identify the defect that is being corrected. For instance, if the corrective deed is being used to correct a defective legal description, then language should be included acknowledging that and referencing the defective deed: “this is a corrective deed intended to correct an error in that certain deed recorded in ABC county, book ABC and page ABC, which contains an incorrect legal description.”