You transfer your share of a co-owned California property by signing a deed, having it notarized, and recording it with the county recorder where the property is located. You do not need your co-owner’s permission. The deed should state exactly what share you are transferring, and the transfer can trigger a transfer tax, a property tax reassessment of that share and, if you hold title as joint tenants, the end of the right of survivorship for your share.
This comes up most often when siblings who inherited a house together want one of them to keep it, when former partners split up, and when investors want out of a shared property. Most of the time, the person taking your share is your co-owner, because almost no outsider will pay full value for a fraction of a house. Our post on selling your half of a jointly owned property explains why.
Each co-owner owns their share outright. You can sell it, give it away, put it into a trust, or borrow against it without your co-owner signing anything. Whoever receives your share steps into your shoes and becomes a co-owner of the whole property, with the same rights you had.
Joint tenants should know one more rule. Under Civil Code section 683.2, a joint tenant can end the joint tenancy alone, and deeding your share to someone else does exactly that. The new owner holds the share as a tenant in common, so the right of survivorship no longer applies to it. A joint tenant can even sever by deeding the share to themselves, as the Court of Appeal held in Riddle v. Harmon (1980) 102 Cal.App.3d 524. Our post on what happens when a joint tenant transfers their interest covers the details.
Choose the Right Deed: Grant Deed or Quitclaim Deed
Most transfers of a share in California use one of two deeds:
- A grant deed carries built-in promises that you haven’t already transferred the share to someone else and haven’t secretly put liens on it. Buyers paying full price usually expect one.
- A quitclaim deed transfers whatever interest you have, with no promises at all. It is common between family members and between co-owners who already know the state of the title.
A buyer who wants protection against old liens or ownership claims can also buy title insurance. It isn’t required, but even a co-owner buying out a sibling can be surprised by a tax lien or a judgment against the departing owner.
What the Deed Must Say
A deed that transfers a share needs these items:
- Who is signing and who is receiving. The person transferring the share (the grantor) and the person receiving it (the grantee), named the way they appear on title.
- The legal description. Copy it from the current recorded deed or a title report. A street address alone is not enough.
- What you are transferring. To transfer everything you own, use “all of grantor’s right, title and interest” rather than a fraction. A stated fraction that doesn’t match what you actually own can leave a slice behind, as our post on deeding a share into a trust explains. If you are transferring only part of your share, state that fraction exactly, or you invite a later fight over who owns what percentage.
- How the new owners hold title. Under Civil Code section 683, a joint tenancy exists only when the deed expressly declares one, such as “as joint tenants.” Without that wording, Civil Code section 686 makes the owners tenants in common. See what tenancy in common means.
- A notarized signature. The county recorder will not record a deed without it.
- The transfer tax statement. The deed must show the documentary transfer tax paid or the reason no tax is owed, such as “gift, no consideration.”
Record the Deed With the County Recorder
Recording makes the transfer a public record. Until the deed is recorded, a later buyer or lender who records first can end up ahead of the person who received your share, as our post on unrecorded deeds explains. For joint tenants, timing matters even more: under section 683.2, a deed that severs a joint tenancy generally must be recorded before the person who signed it dies, or the surviving joint tenant still takes the whole property.
File a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report with the deed. It tells the county assessor about the transfer, and the recorder can charge an extra fee when it is missing.
- Documentary transfer tax. The county tax is $1.10 per $1,000 of the price paid, and some cities add their own tax on top. A true gift generally owes none.
- Property tax reassessment. The share that changes hands is generally reassessed to its current value. The share that stays put is not. Transfers between spouses are excluded, and a transfer from parent to child may be excluded under Proposition 19, but transfers between siblings are not.
- Federal gift tax return. Giving your share away, or selling it for less than it is worth, is a gift. A gift over $19,000 to one person in 2026 requires a federal gift tax return, but no tax is due until you use up the $15 million lifetime exemption. California has no gift tax.
- Capital gains. Selling your share for more than you paid can create a taxable gain. See our overview of taxes every California real estate owner should understand.
Use Escrow When Money Changes Hands
A gift between family members can be recorded without escrow. When a co-owner is buying your share, use an escrow company so the deed is recorded only when the money is actually paid. Escrow also calculates the transfer tax and pays off or refinances any loan.
That loan is the step people miss. Deeding away your share does not take your name off the mortgage. If you are on the loan, the buyout should include a refinance or payoff that releases you, as our post on removing a co-owner from a mortgage explains.
Example: A Sibling Buyout in Sacramento
Say you and your brother inherited your mother’s house in Sacramento 50/50 as tenants in common. The house is worth $600,000 and still has a $200,000 loan, leaving $400,000 in equity. Your half is $200,000.
Your brother takes out a new loan in his own name. Escrow uses it to pay off the old $200,000 loan, pays you $200,000, less your share of closing costs, and records your grant deed transferring “all of grantor’s right, title and interest” to him. He now owns the whole house, you are off the loan, and the half he bought from you is reassessed, because Proposition 19 does not cover transfers between siblings. Actual figures depend on the facts of each case, including any credits for who paid the mortgage and taxes.
You can still deed your share to an outside buyer, but investors who buy fractions of houses pay a steep discount, because they are buying a lawsuit along with the share. The better path is usually a partition action. The right to partition is absolute: your co-owner cannot stop it by refusing to sell or refusing to talk. The court orders a partition by sale, the property sells at market value, and the proceeds are divided with credits for who paid what.
Filing often produces the buyout your co-owner refused. Once a co-owner asks the court to order a sale of a tenancy-in-common property, the other owners get a chance to buy out that share at the court’s valuation. See also whether you can force a co-owner to buy your share and how to remove a co-owner from a house title. If the property is community property between spouses, the family court divides it in the divorce instead.
Can’t Agree on a Buyout? End the Co-Ownership With a Partition Action
Transferring a share is simple when both co-owners agree on the price. When they don’t, a partition action gets you the full value of your share without waiting on your co-owner.
Talkov Law can help. With 12 full-time partition attorneys and over 650 partition actions handled throughout California, our team handles every step, from negotiating a buyout and the deed that completes it through a court-ordered sale and the final division of the proceeds. Call (877) PARTITION (727-8484) today or contact us online for a free 30-minute consultation. No fees until you win.
