Why People File a Quitclaim Deed in San Joaquin County
Just Got Married
Some couples add a spouse to the title right after the wedding; others wait years — a quitclaim deed works the same either way.
Going Through a Divorce
If the court ordered your ex to sign over their interest, a quitclaim deed is typically the document used to do that.
Inherited Property
Families who inherit property jointly sometimes use a quitclaim deed to shift full ownership to just one sibling, with the others' consent.
Gifting to Family
If no money is changing hands and the transfer is simply a family gift, a quitclaim deed is almost always the right document.
About the San Joaquin County Recorder-County Clerk
San Joaquin County was one of California's original 27 counties, created in 1850, and takes its name from the San Joaquin River, itself named for St. Joachim by early Spanish explorers. Its seat, Stockton, was founded in 1849 by German immigrant Charles Weber on land from a Mexican land grant and renamed the following year for Commodore Robert F. Stockton. As Gold Rush fever faded in the 1870s, reclamation of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta's peat soils (begun in 1869) turned the county into one of the nation's richest farming regions, still known today for asparagus, cherries, walnuts, and Delta wine grapes. This office is a division of the county's broader Assessor-Recorder-County Clerk's Office.
Cities and Communities Served
Recording jurisdiction runs countywide, not by city limits — if the property sits anywhere within San Joaquin County, this is the San Joaquin County Recorder-County Clerk that will accept the deed. That includes:
Incorporated cities: Escalon, Lathrop, Lodi, Manteca, Mountain House, Ripon, Stockton, Tracy.
Unincorporated communities: French Camp, Linden, Thornton, Lockeford, Acampo, Woodbridge.
Mountain House, long one of California's largest unincorporated planned communities, formally incorporated as a city on July 1, 2024.
Office Details
Address: 44 North San Joaquin Street, Second Floor, Suite 260, Stockton, CA 95202
Phone: (209) 468-3939
Hours: Monday-Friday, 8:00 AM-4:30 PM, excluding holidays. Document recording is accepted until 4:00 PM for same-day recording; documents submitted between 4:00 and 4:30 PM are recorded the following business day.
Recording Fee: A flat per-page recording fee, plus state-mandated per-title surcharges such as a Building Homes and Jobs Act (SB 2) fee and a real estate fraud prosecution fee, plus a county documentary transfer tax based on a percentage of the property's value. A penalty fee applies if a required Preliminary Change of Ownership Report is missing or incomplete.
E-recording: Available through the Simplifile e-recording network. The office also offers an online self-service portal for recording and retrieving documents and applications.
Good to know before you go: San Joaquin County has run a Real Estate Fraud Notification Program (REFA) since September 2015, automatically mailing a courtesy notice to the owner of record whenever a deed, deed of trust, or similar document is recorded against their property - no sign-up is required, and in February 2026 the Board of Supervisors voted to expand these early-warning protections further under state law (SB 255).
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 San Joaquin County Recorder-County Clerk 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 San Joaquin County Recorder-County Clerk 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 San Joaquin County Recorder-County Clerk 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 San Joaquin County Recorder-County Clerk?
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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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