I appreciate all the time and effort experienced DIS members give to thoughtfully and thoroughly answer questions on these boards. They have been an *invaluable* resource for my recent gratuitous transfer and I want to give back to the community. Some of the extremely helpful threads are more than 6 years old and there have been some changes in procedure. I also noticed many questions with answers that have good information sprinkled throughout many discussions and thought it would simplify things to have everything pulled together on one thread. Incredibly, my process from start to finish was 21 days!
1. Submit a Request to Change Title to Member Administration.
"A completed Request to Change Title form will serve as notice of your request to transfer ownership interests; does not require notarization and is a request for a Waiver of the Right of First Refusal to be issued. DVD will notify the Owner in writing within the 30-day notice period." The form can be found here and scanned/emailed:
This is strictly a formality for a
gratuitous transfer and shouldn't present a problem. Please be VERY careful to make sure you list the names exactly as you want them to appear as the 'grantees' on the new deed. They MUST match. Include any/all of the previous owners plus any new ones. You do NOT need the legal description of the property anymore; just your contract number and resort name. Only one member signature is required and it does not need to be notarized.
2. While waiting on the ROFR prepare your deed. I think this is what intimidates most people when it is really very simple. Use your existing deed as a template.
I am not an attorney and don't play one on TV. Seek legal advice if you have any questions or concerns about preparing your own deed. This primer is my experience only. (Edited to add: Use the link in Step 6 to search for your deed: type your last name in the 'either party' box and then click on the advance search tab and put 'disney' in the legal remarks box.) You will be changing the following items from your current deed:
- The "prepared by" area to yourself
- The date of execution
- The grantor(s) - these are the names of the grantees from the previous deed
- The grantees - these are the names you are adding plus those you are keeping AND must match EXACTLY the names you put on the ROFR Waiver request
- The amount of consideration (*see below)
- Create a new area for signatures, witnesses, and notary.
- Final check: See Fl. deed requirements and make sure your deed ticks all the boxes. If you are using your old deed as template, you should be Gucci (in the words of my son). One note: the notary stamp must be inked NOT a seal. Reports are that OCC may record a deed with mistakes but Disney will reject it.
*The consideration paragraph: This should read $10.00 as this is a legal standard indicating a gratuitous transfer. Disney recognizes this as such and it will NOT trigger your transfer as a 'sale' with loss of any member benefits that may be grandfathered.
If you haven't included a consideration paragraph in your deed, OCC instructions are to write "consideration $10.00" on the top left of the deed. This now replaces the need to prepare the document stamp statement. Thank you to @DaniPoppins for reporting this!
Sidebar|Deed:
Two of the most common ways to hold a deed are "Tenants In Common" and "Joint Tenants with Right of Survivorship". Educate yourself on the difference and decide if you still want to title your new deed in the same way as the original.
If you are changing the name of an original deed holder on the new deed, such as changing a maiden name to a married one, on the advice of our attorney we included 'fka' (formerly known as) ie "Jane Doe fka Jane Fawn"
Your grantees on the deed must match EXACTLY the grantees listed on DVC's ROFR Waiver. I can't stress this enough. I caught a mistake on Disney's part in my waiver. I called and they were very gracious and emailed a corrected waiver right away. If I had not caught it, she said it would have been bounced back - adding to the process time.
3. Receive your ROFR Waiver from Disney. Per Member Administration: As of July 1, 2018 Disney does NOT require a waiver to be recorded and you will not receive one. Your packet will have a 2 pg. letter stating their ROFR and instructions. There will also be a 2 pg. New Owner Information form and a 1 pg. contact information sheet. Your boilerplate letter may have a footnoted enclosures list that includes a waiver. As of 8/8 they had not corrected that and there will be NO waiver included.
4. Send your deed and your check* to:
Orange County Controller
109 E. Church St.
Suite 300
Orlando, FL 32801
Sidebar|Address:
The address I included is a physical address for their overnight mail. It was given to me by the very nice woman I spoke to in the OCC office. They have a PO Box that is listed on the website as the address to send your paperwork but this physical address works and will probably expedite your recording time.
Sidebar|Be Kind:
The same very nice woman I spoke to in the office said they really appreciate a self addressed, stamped envelope to return the deed
although this is not required. I think they really do because my deed was recorded within 24 hours of delivery 
*Your check should be made to Orange County Controller. You will need an amount consisting of .70 for the doc stamp, 18.50 for a 2 pg. deed (10.00 for the first page, 8.50 for each additional page), and $1.00 per name for the total number of names over 4. In my case I had 2 grantors and 5 grantees for a total of 7. So an additional $3 for a total of $22.20.
Interesting sidebar: The OCC is allowed to accept a check for up to $10 over the amount owed. If you are unsure or want to make sure you don't get your paperwork returned for insufficient payment - include a few dollars more 
Edited to add: make sure your check has your address printed on it or everything will be returned! thank you for reporting
@csmommy
5. Watch the OCC website (or wait for your deed to come in the mail). We were in a time crunch for new memberships to use for a reservation so I didn't want to wait on snail mail. They start recording deeds at 7am. Search by name OR I searched by day - I was prepared to search everyday, several times a day after I saw that my tracked priority envelope was delivered.
I was able to find my deed within an hour of it being recorded. It said it was "in process" but when I clicked on 'image' it showed the full deed with the stamp and I was able to download it. Here is the link to the OCC search page:
6. Scan your recorded deed and your New Owner Information form into a .pdf file and email to Member Administration.
7. PHEW!!!! Take a deep breath and wait for your welcome letter by email and your new membership card by snail mail.
*A word about Florida mail. If you need to expedite your process, I recommend spending some extra $ and use a priority mail envelope to send your deed to the OCC office. First class mail to Florida is known to take longer than usual.
A few 'membership extras' - ha!***
-a gratuitous transfer will NOT affect an existing reservation. I was holding my breath and the excellent veterans on this board talked me off the ledge. Happy to report reservation is intact.
- a gratuitous transfer will NOT affect your membership privileges that are grandfathered with your resale contract (if any).
-edited to add from
@bumbershoot
"having your dues paid monthly totally counts as being paid in full with dues. So for those of us who do the monthly payments, do not panic that you need to pay it all. You are considered paid in full if you have the bank draft going on.
(the panic was my experience 2 years ago, and knowing that it counts and is FINE is my experience recently)"
My timeline:
7/30 Scanned and emailed ROFR Waiver Request to Member Administration
8/8 Received ROFR Waiver from Disney (snail mail)
8/9 Mailed deed to OCC by priority mail
8/14 Deed Recorded at OCC
8/14 Scanned/Emailed official deed and New Owner Information to Member Administration
8/20 Got the "Welcome Home" email from Disney
***These are my experiences only. I am not an attorney and I am not providing legal advice. An attorney should be contacted for advice on specific legal issues. For specific information on how a gratuitous transfer may affect your membership you should corroborate with Member Services. We all know how things can change with Disney.***
