Step By Step - How to Add Names to an Existing Contract (Gratuitous Transfer)

[dwg]

Thanks for this information about this new service. Do you mind sharing what the cost was? The convenience of having Disney handle everything could indeed be worth the price!

I wonder whether they’ll handle South Carolina (HHI), Hawaii, and California deeds as well, with their laws being different from Florida’s. For gratuitous transfers it seems like they should.

I think they said only are doing WDW properties in Florida. Not sure about Vero Beach.

The first contract is $552 (Closing fee $395; Title search $45; Title Insurance $74.75; Recording fees $37.70) with a small discount for the second contract $487.70. To me it is worth it. I started the process with a phone call and they sent a questionnaire to complete for each contract I am updating. I have nothing else to do at this point until additional documents are required to be signed and notarized which will also be done remotely. Also did not have to pay any fees to get the process started.

 

[Dean]

I think they said only are doing WDW properties in Florida. Not sure about Vero Beach.

The first contract is $552 (Closing fee $395; Title search $45; Title Insurance $74.75; Recording fees $37.70) with a small discount for the second contract $487.70. To me it is worth it. I started the process with a phone call and they sent a questionnaire to complete for each contract I am updating. I have nothing else to do at this point until additional documents are required to be signed and notarized which will also be done remotely. Also did not have to pay any fees to get the process started.

Almost double the price of LT Transfers. No need to title insurance if updating a contract one already owns.

 

[dwg]

Almost double the price of LT Transfers. No need to title insurance if updating a contract one already owns.

Understand. I mentioned in my earlier post that it would be more expensive and I was perfectly good with that in order to not have to deal with third parties. Disney also said they use a Warranty deed not a Quitclaim deed.

 

[BLTtinkerbell]

I have a few questions about adding names to a membership.

My mother is adding my name & my DH.

On the new owner form, do we leave her marital status blank, as her husband (my father) doesn’t want his name on the deeds?

On the Quit Claim Deed, do we leave the mailing address alone for the Grantee? It’s her mailing address and we don’t live with her.

Thanks for any information.

 

[dwg]

I have a few questions about adding names to a membership.

My mother is adding my name & my DH.

On the new owner form, do we leave her marital status blank, as her husband (my father) doesn’t want his name on the deeds?

On the Quit Claim Deed, do we leave the mailing address alone for the Grantee? It’s her mailing address and we don’t live with her.

Thanks for any information.

Not a lawyer so can't really answer your questions from a legal standpoint. I think your best bet is to discuss your questions with the title company doing your gratuitous transfer. As I mentioned I went with Disney directly so no gratuitous amount like $10 was needed as has been mentioned on this thread. While going through my process I did ask about the mailing addresses since my son lives at different address from me. Disney didn't care so I used my address for everyone. More important was our email addresses since documents were sent to the email addresses for electronic signing. The Disney questionaire form was a drop down menu that you clicked on when filling in details like marriage status so I do not think it would have allowed me to leave it blank. Also Disney uses a Warranty Deed. I do not know if that makes a difference in how questions are answered.

 

[dwg]

I do not know what the average time is for completing the gratuitous title transfer but I wanted to update everyone on my experience. From making the initial phone call to Disney to start the gratuitous deed transfer to completing the notary process online took 19 days. This includes waiting a week for an online notary appointment to notarize the final documents. The remaining steps include Disney recording the new deeds, sending us the new deeds and letting us know by email once everything is completed.

 

[MyDogTink]

This may already be common knowledge but I decided to add my adult son to our DVC contract for WDW and Disney will handle the entire process. The cost is more expensive than using a third party title insurance company but they handle everything from start to finish. All documents are signed electronically and no need to go to a notary as they handle notarizing the documents remotely as well. I think it is similar to the process used when buying new contracts directly with Disney. I was told it is something that they have started to do within the past year.

I am looking to add my husband to my resale contacts (@CarolynFH knows my story!). I called MA this morning and was told they do not handle this and I had to go through a third party title company.

I am going to use LT Transfers who has been pleasant to deal with so far.

What I find interesting is how DVC titles the deeds. They title them as "Jill and Jack as wife and husband (the "Purchasers")." This means a deceased owner's heirs (based on the will) will get the property. The property has to go through probate in Orange County, FL. and an order would be entered by the judge transferring the property to the heirs.

Why wouldn't DVC title (or offer the option to) the properties as Joint Tenants with Right of Survivorship so if one owner predeceases the other, the living owner takes full ownership?

My next concern is what it means when Disney says the deeds need to be titled the same way to keep additional contracts in one membership. Is it solely the owners and the legal names on the contact or are they looking at the titling for transfer upon death of an owner.

 

[CarolynFH]

My next concern is what it means when Disney says the deeds need to be titled the same way to keep additional contracts in one membership. Is it solely the owners and the legal names on the contact or are they looking at the titling for transfer upon death of an owner.

I've always understood it to mean that the persons had to be the same - i.e., the same names. I believe that the form of ownership (I'm not sure whether that's the correct terminology) such as "husband and wife" vs. "joint tenants with right of survivorship" can be different. @drusba, can you help here, please?

 

[dwg]

These are the vesting options on the Disney Questionnaire when doing a gratuitous deed transfer. In our case adding our son to the deed. We have 2 contract and are adding our son to both. As far as keeping all the contracts in the same membership number Disney told us that all contracts under the membership number must be updated in the same way as opposed to only updating one of our contract which I understood to mean a second membership number would be needed for the changed deed.

Our new deeds are now JTROS since adding our son to the title.

VESTING OPTIONS:

For two or more owners only, see Vesting Options explanations below. If transferring to a TRUST, vesting is not required. Common Ways to Take Title for Real Estate in Florida:

JOINT TENANTS WITH RIGHTS OF SURVIVORSHIP (JTROS) (Upon the death of an owner, the deceased owner’s interest in the property automatically vests in the surviving owner(s) upon recording of a certified copy of the death certificate. Title to the deceased owner’s interest does not vest in the estate, heirs or beneficiaries of the deceased owner and is not subject to probate.)

TENANTS IN COMMON (If deed is silent – not JTROS or husband and wife - the law defaults to Tenants in Common) (Upon the death of an owner, the interest of the deceased owner vests in the estate, heirs or beneficiaries of the deceased owner and is subject to probate. Title to the deceased owner’s interest does not automatically vest in the surviving owner(s).)

TENANTS BY THE ENTIRETY (Husband and Wife, Husband and Husband, Wife and Wife) (Only available to legally married couples; it is very similar to a JTROS. Upon the death of one spouse, the deceased spouse’s interest in the property automatically vests in the surviving spouse upon recording of a certified copy of the death certificate and a continuous marriage affidavit. Title to the deceased spouse’s interest does not vest in the estate, heirs or beneficiaries of the deceased spouse and is not subject to probate. What distinguishes it from JTWROS is that it can be terminated only by joint action of the married couple during their lives. Owners who are married to each other at the time of conveyance can only take title in this way, unless a contrary intention is indicated in the conveyance.)

Florida law prohibits anyone other than an attorney advising you on how a deed is titled. Please note that this is not legal advice. You must consult a licensed attorney if you require an explanation or have questions regarding vesting options for your deed or if you would like to take title in any other way (e.g., in trust)

 

[CarolynFH]

These are the vesting options on the Disney Questionnaire when doing a gratuitous deed transfer. In our case adding our son to the deed. We have 2 contract and are adding our son to both. As far as keeping all the contracts in the same membership number Disney told us that all contracts under the membership number must be updated in the same way as opposed to only updating one of our contract which I understood to mean a second membership number would be needed for the changed deed.

Our new deeds are now JTROS since adding our son to the title.

VESTING OPTIONS:

For two or more owners only, see Vesting Options explanations below. If transferring to a TRUST, vesting is not required. Common Ways to Take Title for Real Estate in Florida:

JOINT TENANTS WITH RIGHTS OF SURVIVORSHIP (JTROS) (Upon the death of an owner, the deceased owner’s interest in the property automatically vests in the surviving owner(s) upon recording of a certified copy of the death certificate. Title to the deceased owner’s interest does not vest in the estate, heirs or beneficiaries of the deceased owner and is not subject to probate.)

TENANTS IN COMMON (If deed is silent – not JTROS or husband and wife - the law defaults to Tenants in Common) (Upon the death of an owner, the interest of the deceased owner vests in the estate, heirs or beneficiaries of the deceased owner and is subject to probate. Title to the deceased owner’s interest does not automatically vest in the surviving owner(s).)

TENANTS BY THE ENTIRETY (Husband and Wife, Husband and Husband, Wife and Wife) (Only available to legally married couples; it is very similar to a JTROS. Upon the death of one spouse, the deceased spouse’s interest in the property automatically vests in the surviving spouse upon recording of a certified copy of the death certificate and a continuous marriage affidavit. Title to the deceased spouse’s interest does not vest in the estate, heirs or beneficiaries of the deceased spouse and is not subject to probate. What distinguishes it from JTWROS is that it can be terminated only by joint action of the married couple during their lives. Owners who are married to each other at the time of conveyance can only take title in this way, unless a contrary intention is indicated in the conveyance.)

Florida law prohibits anyone other than an attorney advising you on how a deed is titled. Please note that this is not legal advice. You must consult a licensed attorney if you require an explanation or have questions regarding vesting options for your deed or if you would like to take title in any other way (e.g., in trust)

Thank you!

 

[drusba]

I am looking to add my husband to my resale contacts (@CarolynFH knows my story!). I called MA this morning and was told they do not handle this and I had to go through a third party title company.

I am going to use LT Transfers who has been pleasant to deal with so far.

What I find interesting is how DVC titles the deeds. They title them as "Jill and Jack as wife and husband (the "Purchasers")." This means a deceased owner's heirs (based on the will) will get the property. The property has to go through probate in Orange County, FL. and an order would be entered by the judge transferring the property to the heirs.

Why wouldn't DVC title (or offer the option to) the properties as Joint Tenants with Right of Survivorship so if one owner predeceases the other, the living owner takes full ownership?

My next concern is what it means when Disney says the deeds need to be titled the same way to keep additional contracts in one membership. Is it solely the owners and the legal names on the contact or are they looking at the titling for transfer upon death of an owner.

The reason in Florida is that there are two forms of joint ownership with right of survivorship. Any two people can buy a property, whether married or not and state on the deed that there is joint ownership with right of survivorship, which creates all the rights and obligations of joint ownership under the law that people usually think of. A married couple in Florida could actually choose for the deed to say only that, and in many states there is no different form of joint ownership with right of survivorship.

Florida is one of the States that has a method of joint ownership with right of survivorship that is called Tenancy by the Entirety (not all States have it). It can apply only to married couples, and the deeds in Florida usually say "husband and wife" or "wife and husband." All the usual rules of joint tenancy generally apply but there is an addition. An unpaid creditor of only one of the spouses cannot put a lien on the property to cover a debt of that spouse and have it sold to pay the debts owed by the one spouse.

Disney's requirement that title be the same for putting multiple contracts into one membership is a reference to assuring the owners are the same in each contract. For example, if the couple purchases a contract when unmarried as joint owners with right of survivorship and then later get married and buy another contract that is tenancy by the entirety, both contracts can be part of the same membership

 

[MyDogTink]

Thanks you @drusba and @dwg.

I wonder why DVC doesn’t give the option of how a married couple wants the deed drafted. At least I don’t recall being asked when I purchased directly with DH.

 

[dwg]

Timeline update. I just checked Orange County website for new deed recording. The deeds were recored with the County on 8/7/24 2 days after closing with the notary.

 

[bear555]

First, thanks for @Kaufeegurl for the detailed info in this thread and everyone who's contributed to it. My wife and I have been looking to add my adult kids onto our 3 contracts for a couple of years now, but figured it was going to be pretty expensive and somewhat complicated. I just submitted my 3 deeds to DVC this week for waaaaay less than I was thinking. A few things that I had to piece together from this thread (and my experience) that I thought might be helpful to consolidate (and please note, this is based on my experience and worked for me, not guaranteeing it will work for you):

• DVC no longer requires any ROFR waiver on gratuitous transfers--if you email member administration and tell them what you're doing, they'll send you a "New Owner Information Form" which is supposed to be the only thing that needs to be sent back with copies of your deeds once Orange County processes them (I've attached the copy they sent me this week to this post EDIT: Looks like they have a slightly newer version which I've updated in the attachments)
• The Orange County Comptroller's office does not require any forms to be sent along with the deeds. I'd seen mention of a form in previous comments--I called them and they said "Nope, just send a check and the deeds, that's all you need". They have a different address for overnight mail if you are using that, which is: 108 E. Church St., Suite 300, Orlando, FL 32801
• For my deed, I used the advanced search to find one that matched my resort that was a gratuitous transfer by entering a partial resort name in the Legal search box on the OC Comptroller advanced search page and then scanning the page for "Grantee (4)" to parse through all of the deed recordings (I used 4 figuring it was a good number to quickly compare to the "Grantor" info which was normally 2 to someone that was adding people).
  • I found a completed one from American Title Company (the one Disney recommends) and just redid my info in that format
  • I've included my deed format as attachments to this post
• In addition to mailing everything in, Orange County does eRecording, so you can do everything online using a third party like Deeds.com--no need to go to the post office/UPS and send anything overnight. There is an additional fee of $21 per deed to do this, but that's probably about the cost of sending an overnight letter to the Comptroller's office.
• For Deeds.com, if you want to use it, it's pretty easy (I'm not advocating for anyone to use them, just seemed like the easiest one to use from my research and good reviews):
  • Setup an account on Deeds.com
  • Upload a copy of your driver's license (I did both front and back in one pic and sent it in---they say they won't process anything without an ID)
  • Get all your deed(s) ready and in the format you want
  • Open a package under your account
  • Upload your deed(s) to the package you created--if you're doing more than one, upload one at a time, but do them within roughly the same timespan so they process them all at once
  • There's no submit button, so I'm not sure what kicks off the process with them, but there's a Message Center box where I just sent a note that said "my deeds are ready for processing". They responded pretty quickly to that.
  • They'll generate an invoice, which once you pay will complete the process on your end and they'll submit your package to Orange County
  • Everything was processed and done from their side quickly--I had my deeds back from Orange County in less than 21 hours and submitted to DVC in less than 24 hours from signing by the notary
  • Here's my timeline using them (everything from them comes with email notices at each step):
    • 8/22
      • 2:26pm: Uploaded my notarized deeds
      • 2:46pm: Deeds.com confirmed that I wanted 3 deeds prepared and there was no other considerations than what was stated in the deed, which I confirmed within a couple of minutes
      • 3:21pm: Deeds.com generated an invoice, which I paid in a minute or two
      • 3:41pm: Deeds.com confirmed that my documents had been submitted to Orange County for processing
    • 8/23
      • 11:15am: Orange County recorded my deeds and deed images were available on the OC Comptroller website
      • 11:52am: Deeds.com notified me that the process was complete and sent me back copies of my recorded deeds.
    • 8/28: Email received from DVC that the process has been completed and I can see my kids as members now
  • $21 per deed for their fee plus the OC fees, all billed through Deeds.com to my credit card. I could not have been happier with the process in terms of how quick it was and how well they handled everything
• DVC confirmed via email that if my wife and I were staying on the deed, that my future reservations that I'd already booked would be unaffected (when I sent my New Owner Info form and my completed deeds, I made sure to note this. (Note: as of the completion of the process, all of my reservations remained intact).
• My total cost to do all 3 contract was $126 (excluding the notary)

Thank you all again for everyone's info here--it's been super helpful and saved me a ton of money. Figured I'd post in the spirit of giving back.

8/28/23 Edit: Process is complete. I've updated the New Owner Information form that Disney sent out to me in the attached files so everyone can see the latest version, which is slightly different than what I submitted.

Thank you for these detailed instructions. I have a few questions for those of you who have done the transfer yourself:
1. Any advice when one of the "Grantors" is deceased? I submitted a copy of the death certificate to DVC. Do I need to do the same for OCC?
2. I noticed that in the sample deed forms there was no place for the ‘new grantees’ to sign. Is this correct?
Thank you!