Deeding Your House Into Your Trust

Updated August 3, 2026. Quick answer: putting your mortgaged home into your own revocable living trust does not let the lender call the loan — federal law forbids it, on stated conditions. Most consumer coverage of this rule states it loosely. Here is the statute’s own wording, including the part that is usually left out.

The statute, both halves

With respect to a real property loan secured by a lien on residential real property containing less than five dwelling units, including a lien on the stock allocated to a dwelling unit in a cooperative housing corporation, or on a residential manufactured home, a lender may not exercise its option pursuant to a due-on-sale clause upon— … (8) a transfer into an inter vivos trust in which the borrower is and remains a beneficiary and which does not relate to a transfer of rights of occupancy in the property; or

— 12 U.S.C. § 1701j-3(d) (lead-in) and (d)(8)

The three conditions, and where each one lives

• The property must contain less than five dwelling units — this sits in the lead-in to subsection (d), not in the trust paragraph itself, which is exactly why summaries drop it. A five-unit building is outside the protection. The lead-in also covers a residential manufactured home and co-op stock.
• The borrower must be and remain a beneficiary of the trust. Present tense and continuing — a later amendment removing you as beneficiary can take the transfer outside the exemption.
• The transfer must not relate to a transfer of rights of occupancy. Moving the house into your own trust while you keep living there is the protected case. Using a trust transfer to hand occupancy to someone else is not.

Note the exact words: the statute says “less than five dwelling units,” not “four or fewer.” They amount to the same thing, and we quote the statute rather than paraphrase it because this is a provision people rely on.

What it does not do

• It does not remove the mortgage. The loan, and your obligation on it, are unchanged. The trust takes the property subject to the lien.
• It does not stop the lender asking questions. Servicers routinely request documentation after a title change; a certification of trust is usually what satisfies them.
• It does not cover every trust. The conditions above are the exemption. A transfer to an irrevocable trust in which you are not a beneficiary is a different transaction with a different answer.
• It does not settle your title insurance. Policies commonly continue to cover a transfer to the insured’s own revocable trust, but this is policy wording rather than law — ask your insurer before recording, not after.

The mechanics

1. Use the deed type your state and your title insurer expect. A warranty or grant deed carries covenants a quitclaim does not, and that difference can matter to a title policy.
2. Get the trust name and date exactly right on the deed. A deed to a misnamed trust is a real problem to unwind later.
3. Record it. An unrecorded deed sitting in a drawer has not funded anything.
4. Check transfer tax and property-tax reassessment before recording. Most states exempt a transfer to your own revocable trust from both, but the exemption usually has to be claimed on the form.
5. Tell your homeowners insurer so the named insured matches the new owner.

Related: funding the rest of the trust · what the lender will ask for · the irrevocable version.

General information drawn from federal and state statute, not legal advice. Deeds, trust law and recording requirements are STATE law and differ; a deed prepared wrongly can cloud title, trigger a transfer tax, or affect a title policy. A living trust only controls the assets actually retitled into it – which is the entire point of this section of the site.