Tennessee Code Annotated

Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-116 (2026)

Unlawful to draw property transfer documents without interest in property

✓ current as of May 2026

Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section JustiaTenn. Code CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar

(a)
- (1) It is an offense for any person to knowingly cause to be prepared, sign, or file records of any property transfer document when the transferor, grantor or person applying for registration knows or should know by an examination of the public records, that the transferor or grantor has no legal nor equitable interest to convey, or when there is no reasonable basis for assumption that the transferor or grantor has any interest in the property.
- (2) As used in this subsection (a), "person" includes any individual, corporation, firm, company, partnership, or association.

(b) Upon a final conviction for an offense pursuant to this section, any court having or exercising circuit court jurisdiction may order the filing of an order of said court declaring the offending transfer document or documents to be void and of no legal effect and removing any cloud on the title that may have arisen because of said documents.

(c) This section shall not be applicable to any licensed attorney who, in good faith, prepares such a transfer document in the course of representation of a client.

(d) A violation of subsection (a) shall be a Class E felony.

Amended by 2013 Tenn. Acts, ch. 413,s 1, eff. 7/1/2013.

Acts 2011, ch. 399, § 1.

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 2 cases, 2017–2017 · leading case: State v. Gentry, 538 S.W.3d 413 (Tenn. 2017).

Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment

State v. Gentry, 538 S.W.3d 413 (Tenn. 2017). · cites it 2× “), or filing a transfer document without a legal or equitable basis, Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-116 (2014), were more appropriate on these facts.”

State of Tennessee v. Tabitha Gentry (AKA ABKA RE BAY) (Tenn. Ct. App. 2017). · cites it 2× “), or filing a transfer document without a legal or equitable basis, Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-116 (2014), were more appropriate on these facts.”

Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.