You remove an ex-spouse from a Florida deed by recording one of two documents in the county where the house sits. The first is a quitclaim deed (it transfers whatever share the signer owns, with no guarantees) signed by your former spouse. The second is a certified copy of a final judgment whose own words transfer the house to you. Either one changes who owns the house. Neither one changes who owes the mortgage, which takes a refinance or a release from the lender.
1. Does the Divorce Judgment Take My Ex Off the Deed?
The answer depends on the wording of your judgment. Some final judgments award the house to one spouse and state that the judgment itself transfers the other spouse’s interest. Others award the house and order the departing spouse to sign a deed within a set number of days, and title does not move until that deed is signed and recorded. A judgment that only divides the equity, or sets a date to sell, leaves both names on the deed.
A judgment that transfers title still has to be recorded to protect you. Florida’s recording law protects a buyer or lender who relies on the public record, so an unrecorded transfer leaves a gap that a creditor of your former spouse can use. Record a certified copy in the official records of the county where the house sits, and make sure it carries the property’s legal description, which is not the street address. Our guide on finding the legal description shows where it is.
Title companies often ask for a quitclaim deed even when the judgment transfers title, because a deed is cleaner to insure. If your former spouse refuses to sign a deed the judgment requires, the court that entered the judgment can enforce it, and the divorce lawyer handles that motion.
2. How Do I Remove My Ex-Spouse From the Deed With a Quitclaim Deed?
A quitclaim deed from your former spouse to you is the usual instrument, and it needs five things.
- Your former spouse as grantor (the person conveying) and you as grantee. Your own signature is not required.
- The exact legal description copied from your current deed.
- The names and post office addresses of both of you, and the name of the person who prepared the deed.
- Two subscribing witnesses and a notary’s acknowledgment, in person or by audio-video technology.
- Recording with the clerk or county recorder, at $10 for the first page and $8.50 for each page after it.
A former spouse who lives out of state can sign remotely. The deed should reference the final judgment by case number, so anyone reading the title later sees why the transfer happened.
3. What Happens if the House Stays in Both Names After the Divorce?
A married couple usually owns the home as tenants by the entirety, a form of ownership only married couples can hold, where the survivor owns the house without probate. Florida law converts that ownership into a tenancy in common the moment the marriage is dissolved. Each former spouse then owns a half that passes through their own estate, and the survivorship disappears.
Three problems follow. Your former spouse’s half passes under their will, or to their heirs, when they die. A judgment creditor of your former spouse can attach to that half. And either co-owner can ask a court to order the house sold in a partition action. Our page on tenancy by the entirety explains the protection the couple had while married.
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4. Does Removing My Ex From the Deed Remove Them From the Mortgage?
No. The deed and the loan are separate documents. A quitclaim deed changes who owns the house, and the promissory note your former spouse signed with the lender stays exactly as it was. Your former spouse remains personally liable for the loan until you refinance in your own name or the lender agrees in writing to release them, and a missed payment still lands on both credit reports.
Federal law protects the transfer itself. A lender may not call a residential loan (on a home with fewer than five units) because a divorce decree or property settlement made the borrower’s spouse the owner. Many judgments set a deadline to refinance, and the divorce lawyer enforces it. The deed can be recorded before the refinance, and a lender doing the refinance will usually require it.
5. Is Documentary Stamp Tax Due on a Deed Between Ex-Spouses?
Florida charges documentary stamp tax of 70 cents per $100 of the consideration for a deed, and consideration includes a mortgage the person receiving the house takes over. A gift of mortgaged property is taxed on the unpaid balance. Taking over a $200,000 balance as the price of your former spouse’s share would mean $1,400 in stamps if no exception applied.
Florida’s Department of Revenue rules address transfers of the marital home incident to a divorce separately, and the result depends on what the judgment actually required. A deed between former spouses is one to check before recording rather than guess at, as our documentary stamp tax guide explains.
6. What Happens to the Homestead Exemption After a Divorce?
A transfer of title between spouses because of a divorce is not a change of ownership for the Save Our Homes cap, so the capped assessed value stays with the house when it passes to you. The exemption itself belongs to the owner who lives there on January 1. Tell the county property appraiser about the new ownership, and apply in your own name by March 1 if the appraiser asks. The Florida homestead exemption page covers the savings, and the guide on how to file for the homestead exemption walks through the form.
7. Should I Sign a Lady Bird Deed After the Divorce?
For most newly single owners, yes. Your old deed may have been a joint lady bird deed or another deed naming your former spouse, and a deed is not among the documents Florida voids at divorce, so the safe course is a new one. A lady bird deed keeps the house in your name for life, names your children or anyone else to receive it at your death without probate, and leaves you free to sell, mortgage or change it without their signatures.
If you have a minor child, Florida’s homestead rules limit who can receive the home, and the deed has to be drafted around them. The rest of your plan needs the same attention, and our guide to your will and beneficiaries after a divorce lists what else still names your former spouse.
What Does It Cost to Remove an Ex-Spouse From a Deed?
An attorney-prepared quitclaim deed is a flat fee from $399 plus recording. A lady bird deed for the newly single owner is a flat fee from $399 plus recording. Recording, certified copies of the judgment and any documentary stamp tax are government costs, passed through at cost. The divorce itself, and any motion to enforce the judgment, is handled by your divorce lawyer.
Not sure which deed fits? The Florida Deed Selector picks one in four questions →
Frequently Asked Questions
How Do I Remove My Ex-Spouse From a Deed?
Your former spouse signs a quitclaim deed conveying their share to you, in front of two witnesses and a notary, and you record it in the county where the house sits. Where the final judgment itself transfers the house to you, recording a certified copy of the judgment can do the same job.
How Do I Get My Ex Off the House Deed?
Start with the final judgment. If it awards you the house and orders your former spouse to sign a deed, get the signed quitclaim deed and record it. If your former spouse refuses, the court that entered the judgment can enforce it.
Do I Need a Quit Claim Deed in Florida After a Divorce?
Usually, yes. Many judgments order the departing spouse to sign one, and a recorded quitclaim deed is what a buyer’s title company expects to see. A judgment that expressly conveys title can sometimes stand in for the deed.
Can I Remove My Ex-Wife From the Deed Myself?
You cannot sign her share away. Only the owner of a share can convey it, so the deed has to be signed by your former wife, or the court has to transfer her share by its judgment.
Can I Remove My Spouse From the Deed Without a Divorce?
Only if your spouse signs a deed giving up their share. No one can be taken off a deed without their signature or a court order, and a married couple’s home usually needs both signatures for any transfer.
Do I Have to Refinance After a Divorce?
A quitclaim deed changes who owns the house and does nothing to the loan, so your former spouse stays liable on the mortgage until you refinance or the lender releases them. Many judgments set a deadline to refinance.
What Happens to the Florida Homestead Exemption After a Divorce?
A transfer between spouses because of a divorce does not reset the Save Our Homes cap. Tell the county property appraiser about the new ownership and apply in your own name by March 1 if the appraiser asks.
Is a Quitclaim Deed Between Ex-Spouses Taxed?
Florida’s documentary stamp tax is 70 cents per $100 of consideration, and a mortgage the receiving spouse takes over can count. The treatment of a transfer required by a divorce depends on what the judgment says, so check before recording.
Common Situations
The sale that found the old name. A woman in Orlando is awarded the house in a 2019 divorce, and the judgment orders her former husband to sign a quitclaim deed. Nobody follows up. In 2026 she contracts to sell, and the buyer’s title search shows his name on the deed. The former husband now lives in Texas and signs remotely, but the closing slips three weeks.
The refinance that came first. A man in Fort Myers keeps the house and has 12 months under his judgment to refinance. His lender requires the recorded quitclaim deed from his former wife before it will close the new loan, so the deed is signed and recorded in the first month.
Sources of Law
- Fla. Stat. §689.15 (no survivorship between co-owners unless the instrument expressly provides it; tenants by the entirety become tenants in common upon dissolution of marriage). Retrieved 2026-10-02.
- Fla. Stat. §689.01 (two subscribing witnesses; witnessing by audio-video technology); §695.26 (names, addresses and preparer on a recorded instrument); §28.24 (recording fees, $10 first page and $8.50 each additional page).
- Fla. Stat. §695.01(1) (an unrecorded conveyance is not good against creditors or subsequent purchasers for value without notice). Whether a particular dissolution judgment conveys title by its own terms depends on its wording.
- 12 U.S.C. §1701j-3(d)(7) (lender may not exercise a due-on-sale clause on a transfer resulting from a decree of dissolution of marriage, a legal separation agreement or an incidental property settlement agreement by which the borrower’s spouse becomes an owner, for residential property with fewer than five dwelling units).
- Fla. Stat. §201.02(1)(a) (70 cents per $100 of consideration, including any mortgage); Fla. Admin. Code R. 12B-4.013(18) (gift of mortgaged realty taxable on the unpaid balance) and 12B-4.013 (deeds between spouses, including transfers incident to dissolution of marriage).
- Fla. Stat. §193.155(3)(a)2. (a transfer between husband and wife, including a transfer due to a dissolution of marriage, is not a change of ownership).
- Fla. Const. Art. X, §4(c) (restrictions on devise of homestead where the owner is survived by a spouse or minor child).
- Case retold below, a decision of the Third District Court of Appeal (Salter, J.) on the claims of a former wife and her former husband’s estate as cotenants of the former marital home, read in full from the local opinion corpus; retrieved 2026-10-02.
- Advertised fees are honored for 90 days from the posted date. Government costs, meaning recording, documentary stamps and certified copies, are additional and passed through at cost.
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The Former Husband Who Owned Half the House for Fourteen Years
Cases with this shape keep coming up, and it is usually a divorce that ended the marriage and left the deed alone. I also litigate deeds after they fail, which enhances the practice of drafting deeds.
I have come across a Miami-Dade case that shows what that costs. A couple bought a home together, and the husband moved out in 1986. The divorce came in 1996, and nobody changed the deed, so from that day the two of them owned the house half and half. The former wife stayed, paid the mortgage alone until it was paid off, and paid the taxes and upkeep for years (in 2005 her elderly mother moved in with her). The former husband never moved back and never paid anything toward the house. The former husband died in the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
His daughter, as personal representative of his estate, asked the probate court to make the former wife pay rent for the estate’s half. The court set the rent at $2,100 a month, gave the estate half of it, and entered a judgment for $15,750 in back rent on a house both sides agreed was worth $160,000. The former wife answered that she had spent $313,063 on the house since 1986. On appeal, the Third District kept the rent but put its collection on hold until a partition sale could net her credits against the estate’s $80,000 share.
In reviewing that opinion, I have a few take-home points.
The first is the deed. A judgment that ends a marriage leaves the house in two names unless something transfers the title, and a former spouse’s half passes through that former spouse’s estate at death. Avoid leaving a divorce file closed with the old deed still on record.
The second is the paperwork after death. The former wife ended up in probate court defending her own home against her former husband’s daughter, fourteen years after the divorce, with a partition case still ahead of her.
The third is the next deed. Once the title is in one name, a lady bird deed decides who receives the house, so the next owner is the person the owner chose.
The opinion does not say how the partition ended, and her credits may well have exceeded the estate’s share. What it does show is that the cost arrived years after anyone could still sign a quitclaim deed.
Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., admitted in Florida since 2012. The case described above is a decision of a Florida court rather than a matter handled by this firm. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Updated on October 2, 2026. Reviewed by Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., Fla. Bar No. 99502. Attorney Kevin Klagge represents families, businesses, and international clients in estate and tax planning, business structuring, and international law, with a focus on Florida legal tools. He litigates estate and business issues in court. General information about Florida and federal law and our posted fees, not legal or tax advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created. The firm does not handle divorce cases. Do not send confidential information until we have agreed to represent you.