Learn NYC property · Deeds, mortgages and sales

Deeds in New York City: the kinds of deed, and grantor and grantee

What a deed is, the kinds New York law describes — bargain and sale, quitclaim, executor's, referee's — transfer-on-death and life estate deeds, who the grantor and grantee are, and what party 1 and party 2 mean on any document in ACRIS.

A deed is the signed document that transfers ownership of real property from one owner to the next. New York law calls any written instrument that creates, transfers, mortgages or assigns an interest in land a conveyance; a deed is the conveyance that changes who owns it. In Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens a deed becomes part of the public record when the City Register records it in ACRIS; on Staten Island the Richmond County Clerk records it.

Recording matters because of what happens without it. Under New York's recording act, an unrecorded deed is void against a later buyer who pays for the same property in good faith and records first. A deed that sits in a drawer does not protect its owner; a recorded one does. Recording is also how everyone else — lenders, title examiners, tax collectors, neighbors — learns who owns a building.

Grantor and grantee

Every deed has two sides. The grantor is the person or company making the conveyance — usually the seller. The grantee is the person or company that receives the property — usually the buyer. A deed can name several of each: a married couple selling a house, three partners buying a building. New York's Tax Law uses the same two words to say who owes the transfer taxes on a sale: the transfer taxes are generally the grantor's to pay, the mansion tax the grantee's.

A worked example. On August 5, 2026, 10 East 53rd Street, a 38-storey office tower in Midtown Manhattan, changed hands for $310,000,000. The deed names 10E53 OWNER LLC as grantor and 10 EAST 53RD GORP PROPERTY LLC as grantee — both companies, as is usual for a building of that size, each formed for the one property. The City Register recorded it on August 11, 2026.

The kinds of deed

New York's Real Property Law sets out model forms for deeds. They are optional — a deed may use other words — but the forms name the kinds, and the kind decides what the grantor promises about the title. Those promises are called covenants.

Full covenant and warranty deed. The grantor promises, among other things, that it owns the property and has the right to sell it, that the buyer will enjoy it undisturbed, that it is free of encumbrances, and that the grantor will defend the title forever. The strongest of the forms.
Bargain and sale deed. It transfers the property without guaranteeing the title against everyone. With covenant against grantor's acts, the grantor promises only that it has done nothing itself to burden the property; without covenant, it promises nothing. A buyer relies on a title search and title insurance rather than on the seller's word.
Quitclaim deed. It hands over whatever interest the grantor has, if any, with no promise at all. It is common between family members, into a trust, or to clear up a doubt on the record.
Executor's deed. When an owner dies, the executor named in the will — or an administrator, if there is no will — gets authority from the Surrogate's Court to sell estate property and sign the deed. The form carries the covenant against the grantor's own acts. An estate sale in the record is usually a deed of this kind.
Referee's deed. A court-appointed referee signs the deed after a court-ordered sale — a foreclosure auction or a partition of property the co-owners could not divide. It makes no promise about the title.

ACRIS has no separate document type for an executor's or a referee's deed: both are recorded as ordinary deeds, and the grantor's name — written as a person's name followed by as executor or as referee — is what tells them apart. By BlockLot Intelligence's reading of the grantors' names, of the 57,985 deeds recorded in the twelve months to September 30, 2026, 847 were conveyed by a referee and about 2,866 by an executor, an administrator or an estate.

Other deeds you will see in ACRIS

Deeds of each kind recorded in 12 months

ACRIS's document types in its class of deeds and other conveyances, over the same twelve months. Referee's and executor's deeds have no type of their own: they are among the deeds. BlockLot Intelligence, computed October 10, 2026.

Transfer-on-death deed (a TOD deed). Since July 19, 2024, a New York owner can sign a deed that passes the property to a named beneficiary only when the owner dies, without going through probate. It must be signed before two witnesses, acknowledged before a notary and recorded before the owner's death. Until then it changes nothing: the owner can still sell or mortgage the property, and can revoke the deed — but only by recording a revocation or a later deed. The beneficiary takes the property with its mortgages and liens.
Life estate deed. The owner gives the property away but keeps the right to live in it for life; ACRIS lists the retained life estate as a third party on the document.
Correction deed. Re-records a deed to fix a mistake — a misspelled name, a wrong lot. It must cite the original and say what it corrects.
Timeshare deeds have their own type: each conveys a timeshare interest — a share of time in a unit — not a home, so a count of deeds that includes them overstates sales.

Transfer-on-death deeds are new, and already common: in the twelve months to September 30, 2026 the City Register recorded 862 of them and 16 revocations, beside 11,107 timeshare deeds.

Party 1 and party 2 on any document

ACRIS indexes every recorded document with its parties, numbered by side — the party type. What party 1 and party 2 mean depends on the document type:

Document	Party 1	Party 2
Deed	Grantor (seller)	Grantee (buyer)
Mortgage	Mortgagor (borrower)	Mortgagee (lender)
Assignment	Old lender	New lender
UCC, federal lien	Debtor	Secured party
Lease	Landlord	Tenant

A few types have a third party: the life estate retained on a life estate deed, the assignee on a UCC financing statement. On a generic document — an agreement, a power of attorney — ACRIS says only party 1 and party 2, and the document itself says who is who. Mortgages and liens have their own pages.

Recording a deed

A deed is recorded with its paperwork: the City's Real Property Transfer Tax return, the State's transfer tax form (TP-584) and real property transfer report (RP-5217), and, for a one- or two-family house, a smoke detector affidavit. All of it is prepared in ACRIS. The City Register charges $32 plus $5 a page — $42 for a two-page document — plus $2 for each additional block and $3 for each additional lot. The transfer taxes are paid at the same time.

Deed theft — a forged or tricked deed that takes an owner's property — has been a crime in its own right in New York since July 19, 2024, prosecuted as grand larceny. The City Register must record a deed that is proper on its face, so the Department of Finance runs a Mayor's Office of Deed Theft Prevention and free alerts when anything is recorded against a property; ACRIS and the City Register explains how to sign up.

Where you see this in BlockLot

A building's page lists every deed in Sales history, newest first, with the buyer, the seller and the price; a seller who is a court-appointed referee is flagged as a foreclosure sale. The Deed parties drawer lists every party on the lot's deeds with its side — 1 for the grantor, 2 for the grantee — and its mailing address, and the Deeds & sales drawer every deed.

Deed parties: the 2026 deed's grantor (party 1) and grantee (party 2), both companies.
Party 1, the grantor
The seller, a company
Party 2, the grantee

Questions people ask

What is the difference between a deed and a title? The deed is the document that transfers the property; title is the ownership itself. A title search reads the chain of recorded deeds, mortgages and liens to confirm the seller really owns what it is selling.

What is the difference between a warranty deed and a bargain and sale deed? A full covenant and warranty deed guarantees the title against everyone; a bargain and sale deed with covenant promises only that the seller itself did nothing to cloud it. With either, a buyer's real protection is the title search and title insurance.

Is a quitclaim deed a sale? It can be, but usually it is not: it transfers whatever interest the grantor has, with no promise, and is used between relatives, into trusts or to correct the record. Many are recorded with no price at all.

How do I find who owns a property? Look up the latest deed in ACRIS by borough, block and lot; its grantee is the owner of record. On a building's page in BlockLot, Sales history shows the same deeds.

Do I need a lawyer to record a transfer-on-death deed? New York's law includes a model form, but the deed must meet strict requirements — two witnesses, a notary and recording before death — so many owners use one. A deed that is not recorded in time has no effect.

Why does a deed show a different name from the person I know owns it? The owner of record may be a company, a trust or an estate. In New York City most larger buildings are owned by a company formed for the one property.

ACRIS and the City Register: where deeds and mortgages are recorded — What the Office of the City Register records, what ACRIS is and how to search it, how long a deed or mortgage takes to reach the record, what is not in ACRIS — Staten Island, lis pendens, records before 1966 — and how owners can be alerted when something is recorded against their property.
Transfer taxes: the NYC RPTT, the State transfer tax and the mansion tax — The taxes due when New York City property changes hands — the City's Real Property Transfer Tax, the State's real estate transfer tax and its higher New York City rate, and the mansion tax — with their rates, who pays each, and worked numbers for homes and buildings.
Sale prices in the public record: ACRIS, DOF's sales files, $0 deeds and package deals — Where New York City sale prices are published — the price written on the deed in ACRIS and the Department of Finance's rolling and annualized sales files — why so many sales show $0, and how partial interests, package deals and non-arm's-length sales distort a price.
Mortgages, satisfactions, assignments and CEMAs — What a mortgage is and who the mortgagor and mortgagee are, the mortgage recording tax, and the documents that follow a loan in ACRIS — assignments when it is sold, CEMAs when it is refinanced, satisfactions when it is paid off — plus reverse mortgages, HMDA and loan-to-value.
Foreclosure in New York: from the 90-day notice and lis pendens to the referee's deed — How a foreclosure works in New York, a judicial state — the 90-day pre-foreclosure notice, the lawsuit and its lis pendens, the settlement conference, the judgment and the referee's auction, the referee's deed — plus deeds in lieu, short sales, tenants' rights and how often foreclosure sales happen in New York City.
Ground leases, net leases and recorded memoranda of lease — What a ground lease is and who owns what under one, how a net lease shifts a building's costs to its tenant, why long leases are recorded in ACRIS as memoranda of lease, how transfer and property taxes treat leases, and what Battery Park City shows about all of it.

Sources

By BlockLot. Reviewed October 9, 2026. Figures by BlockLot Intelligence, computed from public data on October 11, 2026. This page explains the rules in general; it is not legal or tax advice. For a decision about a specific property, check the official source or ask a professional. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.