Why People File a Quitclaim Deed in Los Angeles County
Just Got Married
Combining households after a marriage often starts with the deed — adding a spouse's name is usually the very first paperwork step.
Going Through a Divorce
Divorce decrees name who keeps the property, but the title still needs a quitclaim deed before the paperwork trail is truly closed.
Inherited Property
Losing a parent brings a long list of paperwork, and updating the deed with a quitclaim filing is usually near the end of it.
Gifting to Family
Some families prefer to gift property early, while everyone can still discuss it together — a quitclaim deed makes that transfer official.
About the Los Angeles County Recorder
Los Angeles County was one of California's original 27 counties, created by the state legislature on February 18, 1850, just months before California itself joined the Union. Its name traces back to the Spanish settlement founded in 1781 as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula, and the young county was initially far larger than it is today, stretching briefly to over 34,000 square miles before later carve-outs, most notably the 1889 split that created Orange County, brought it down to its present roughly 4,000-plus square miles of land and water. Today it is the most populous county in the United States, home to more residents than 42 individual states, anchored economically by the adjoining ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the entertainment industry centered in and around Hollywood, and a large aerospace and manufacturing base. The City of Los Angeles has served as the county seat since the county's creation. The office's full formal title is the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk (RR/CC), reflecting its combined recording, elections, and vital-records duties.
Cities and Communities Served
Recording jurisdiction runs countywide, not by city limits — if the property sits anywhere within Los Angeles County, this is the Los Angeles County Recorder that will accept the deed. That includes:
Incorporated cities: Agoura Hills, Alhambra, Arcadia, Artesia, Avalon, Azusa, Baldwin Park, Bell, Bell Gardens, Bellflower, Beverly Hills, Bradbury, Burbank, Calabasas, Carson, Cerritos, Claremont, Commerce, Compton, Covina, Cudahy, Culver City, Diamond Bar, Downey, Duarte, El Monte, El Segundo, Gardena, Glendale, Glendora, Hawaiian Gardens, Hawthorne, Hermosa Beach, Hidden Hills, Huntington Park, Industry, Inglewood, Irwindale, La Cañada Flintridge, La Habra Heights, La Mirada, La Puente, La Verne, Lakewood, Lancaster, Lawndale, Lomita, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Lynwood, Malibu, Manhattan Beach, Maywood, Monrovia, Montebello, Monterey Park, Norwalk, Palmdale, Palos Verdes Estates, Paramount, Pasadena, Pico Rivera, Pomona, Rancho Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach, Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates, Rosemead, San Dimas, San Fernando, San Gabriel, San Marino, Santa Clarita, Santa Fe Springs, Santa Monica, Sierra Madre, Signal Hill, South El Monte, South Gate, South Pasadena, Temple City, Torrance, Vernon, Walnut, West Covina, West Hollywood, Westlake Village, Whittier.
Unincorporated communities: East Los Angeles, Marina del Rey, Altadena, Florence-Firestone, Willowbrook, Val Verde, Castaic, Rowland Heights, Hacienda Heights, Ladera Heights, View Park-Windsor Hills, Walnut Park.
Los Angeles County contains all 88 incorporated cities in the county plus dozens of unincorporated communities; the list above covers all incorporated cities and a representative, non-exhaustive sample of the larger unincorporated areas.
Office Details
Address: 12400 Imperial Highway, Norwalk, CA 90650
Phone: (800) 201-8999
Hours: Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Norwalk headquarters. The county's other recording-capable branch offices (Van Nuys, Lancaster, and the LAX/Los Angeles location) keep recording counter hours of 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., which run shorter than the Norwalk main office's hours.
Recording Fee: Recording uses a flat per-page fee that varies by document type and page count, plus a county documentary transfer tax calculated as a percentage of the property's value or consideration. Property within the City of Los Angeles is also subject to the city's own separate city real property transfer tax, layered on top of the county tax, including an additional city tax tier that applies to higher-value residential and commercial sales. A Preliminary Change of Ownership Report must generally accompany the deed, and a separate penalty fee applies if it is missing or incomplete.
E-recording: Los Angeles County accepts electronic recording of deeds (including quitclaim deeds) through approved third-party e-recording vendors such as Simplifile and CSC; documents submitted this way are typically confirmed by the county within hours rather than requiring an in-person or mail submission.
Good to know before you go: LA County recording clerks will reject a deed if it doesn't show a documentary transfer tax statement directly on the face of the document, either the computed tax amount and whether the property lies in an incorporated or unincorporated area, or the specific code-section exemption language if no tax is due; the county stopped accepting the older 'not for public record/NPR' notation as a substitute. Also note that only four of the RR/CC's public counters currently record real property documents, Norwalk (the main office), Van Nuys, Lancaster, and the LAX/Los Angeles location, while the Beverly Hills and East Los Angeles/Florence-Firestone branch offices handle other county-clerk services but do not record deeds, so filers should confirm they're headed to a recording-capable branch before making the trip.
How to File a Document
- Sign in Front of a Notary: California requires the grantor's signature to be acknowledged before a notary public before the Los Angeles County Recorder will accept a deed for recording. California notaries also have to take the signer's right thumbprint in their journal specifically for deeds and other real-property documents -- a state-specific requirement that catches people off guard if their notary isn't prepared for it, so it's worth confirming ahead of time that whoever notarizes your deed has a journal and inkpad on hand.
- Attach a Full Legal Description, Not Just an Address: A street address alone won't satisfy California's requirements -- the deed needs the property's actual legal description (a metes-and-bounds description, a government survey reference, or a platted lot and block, depending on how the parcel was originally surveyed and subdivided). You can usually copy this directly from the deed that transferred the property to you.
- Complete a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report: California requires a separate Preliminary Change of Ownership Report (PCOR) to accompany most deeds when they're filed. It's a distinct form the county assessor's office uses to determine whether the transfer triggers a reassessment -- a penalty applies if it's missing or left incomplete, so it's worth getting right before you file. The Los Angeles County Recorder or county assessor can supply the current version.
- Know Where California Stands on Remote Online Notarization: Unlike some states, California-commissioned notaries can't yet offer remote online notarization -- that's not scheduled to change until January 1, 2030. In the meantime, an out-of-state online notary can still validly notarize a California deed, since California recognizes notarial acts performed under another state's laws. See our online notarization page for how that works.
- Record with the County Clerk-Recorder: Bring, mail, or (where the county supports it) e-file the signed, notarized deed and its Preliminary Change of Ownership Report with the Los Angeles County Recorder for the county where the property sits. California's recording fee is a flat, statute-set amount per document, and on top of that, a county documentary transfer tax applies based on a percentage of the property's value -- some cities also levy their own additional city transfer tax on top of the county's.
Still Have Questions About Filing With the Los Angeles County Recorder?
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Other Counties in California
Filing somewhere else in the state? Here are a few other county pages:
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