A “wild deed” is a recorded instrument that falls outside the legitimate chain of title. For example, a recorded deed that was never properly connected back to the true owner of record. Wild deeds can result from a number of causes, but one increasingly common source is the use of AI tools or online templates to prepare a deed. Because Florida deeds must satisfy a specific set of statutory formalities, a deed that gets even one of those formalities wrong can itself become a wild deed.
Why Wild Deeds Matter Long-Term
Under Florida’s Marketable Record Title Act (MRTA), under Chapter 712, Florida Statutes, a person who holds record title to land for thirty years or more generally takes that title free and clear of older claims, interests, and defects that were not properly preserved of record. That thirty-year “clean slate” rule is enormously useful for simplifying title searches and closings, but it cuts both ways, a wild deed that goes unchallenged long enough can effectively become part of the chain of title that later purchasers and lenders rely on. That is exactly why catching and correcting title defects early matters so much, and why waiting to “see if it becomes a problem” is rarely a sound strategy.
Caution Against AI-Drafted Deeds
Florida deeds are formal instruments with specific statutory execution requirements. Under Section 689.01, Florida Statutes, a deed must generally be signed by the grantor in the presence of two subscribing witnesses. To be recordable and to give constructive notice to the world under Section 695.01, the deed must also be properly acknowledged before a notary public in accordance with Section 695.03. On top of that, the deed must contain an accurate, unambiguous legal description of the property being conveyed, not just a street address.
AI chatbots and online deed generators create risk at nearly every one of these steps. These tools work from whatever the user types into a prompt or form field, with no independent connection to the county property appraiser's records, the recorded chain of title, or any authoritative source confirming who actually owns the parcel. If the person requesting the deed misidentifies the current owner or is simply mistaken about title, the tool has no way to catch it. The same is true for the legal description, AI models can generate text that looks like a valid metes-and-bounds or platted-lot description, but they cannot confirm that the description actually matches the parcel the parties intend to convey, and a boilerplate or slightly garbled description can render the deed ambiguous or unenforceable.
AI models are also trained on a mix of documents from many states, so they can just as easily produce a deed that reflects another state's execution requirements, or that omits a formality Florida specifically requires, without ever flagging that the output doesn't match Florida law.
Choosing the wrong type of deed carries its own risk. A quitclaim deed, a warranty deed, and a special warranty deed all convey different levels of protection to the grantee and different exposure for the grantor, and an AI tool asked to "draft a deed" has no reliable way of confirming which type actually fits the transaction the parties intend.
A deed that gets even one of these elements wrong does not simply create a paperwork headache, it can itself become a wild deed, clouding title and creating exactly the kind of ownership gap that can be exploited.
Best Practice
The safest approach when it comes to deeds, remains the simplest one: have an attorney prepare and review any type of deed before it is signed and recorded. This removes the risk of an ai error being made and creating a wild deed.
