Also known as: deed covenant for title · covenants for title · covenant for title · title covenants · warranties of title · deed warranties
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
A set of promises made by a grantor in a deed concerning the quality of title conveyed to the grantee. Present covenants address the state of title at delivery and include seisin, the right to convey, and freedom from encumbrances. Future covenants address later interference with possession and include quiet enjoyment, warranty, and sometimes further assurance.
Dawson Steel conveyed a factory parcel to Dover Bank by quitclaim deed after the bank negotiated a discounted price to account for possible title issues. Months later an unrecorded easement asserted by a utility company blocked the bank's planned expansion. Dover Bank had no claim against Dawson Steel because the quitclaim deed created no covenants for title on which to sue.
Demetrius Douglas delivered a general warranty deed for an office building to Destiny Davis. A prior recorded mortgage held by Dixon Foods later resulted in foreclosure and eviction of Davis. Davis recovered damages from Douglas because the general warranty deed's covenants against encumbrances and for quiet enjoyment were breached by the preexisting lien.
On August 31, 1927, Dusch leased to Hannan certain real estate in the city of Norfolk, Virginia, for fifteen years, the term to begin January 1, 1928, at a specified rental. There is no express covenant as to the delivery of the premises nor for the quiet possession of the premises by the lessee. The declaration alleges that it thereupon became the duty of the defendant to see to it that the premises leased should be open for entry by the plaintiff on January 1, 1928. The petitioner was willing and ready to enter upon and take possession of the leased property and so informed the defendant. Yet the defendant failed and refused to put the plaintiff in possession or to keep the property open for him at that time or on any subsequent date. The defendant suffered to remain on said property a former tenant or tenants who occupied a portion or portions thereof and refused to take legal or other action to oust said tenants. Hannan alleged damages which he had suffered by reason of this alleged breach of the contract and deed and sought to recover such damages in the action. Dusch demurred to the declaration on several grounds. One ground was that under the lease set out in said declaration the right of possession was vested in said plaintiff. There was no duty as upon the defendant to see that the premises were open for entry by said plaintiff.
View caseA general warranty deed contains the full set of present and future covenants for title. These covenants protect the grantee against defects existing at the time of conveyance and later assertions of superior title.
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A quitclaim deed creates no covenants for title and conveys only whatever interest the grantor holds. The grantee therefore bears the entire risk of any encumbrances or defects.
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A special warranty deed is breached only when a title defect arises by, through, or under the grantor. Defects created by prior owners fall outside its scope.
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Future covenants such as quiet enjoyment and warranty are breached only upon actual interference with possession. A grantee may therefore sue on those covenants when a preexisting encumbrance is later enforced.
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…uniform, we understand the law upon the subject to be perfectly well settled. Taylor on Landlord and Tenant, 147; Rawle on Covenants for Title, 147. The lessor is responsible upon the covenant for his own acts, and for the acts of others claiming by title paramount to the lease, but he is not responsible for the acts of a mere…