A Quit Claim is a remarkably lame document. For five bucks I would Quit Claim the Brooklyn Bridge. That's meaningless, nobody ever thought I had claim to ownership of the Bridge. But it would be perfectly good paper.
You *really* want to talk to a local Title Agent.
IIRC (fuzzy) in NJ a good transaction was sold on a Deed And Warranty. The sellers not only gave a Deed, they Warranted that if any other claimants appeared, they (sellers) would defend or settle the claim for no damage to me. (This was of course an insurance policy, issued after due-diligence of the property history and a payment.)
OTOH, in Maine apparently title normally passes on a Quit Claim from the nominal owner, but the buyer is urged to purchase Title Insurance. As I was buying from a bankrupt homeowner with his predatory lender at the table, I was a bit concerned, but our title agent said this was cool. I may have got QuitClaims from both Glenn and LandShark Loans. With the insurance, it is really the same as above except for which-side pays for the policy.
> Is this a scam?
I don't *see* how it scams you. You should demand some consideration (money or trade) for the Quit Claim; One pound (dollar) is traditional. Since you apparently have no true Claim in the property, this may not be required; but he is Motivated and you are not. A buck binds the deal. If you have to take off work and go to the Closing (a good idea), you should be paid a professional day-rate for your time (ask $500). However I hear that in civilized lands, closings today are all emails?
Important: IS he the former owner of the LLC name? Or plausibly connected (son, verifiable partner)? If not, be very suspicious.
Does the time-line of his LLC match the time events of the property? If he held the LLC 1990-2000, but the courthouse records show the property transferred in 2005, that is odd. Again a local Title Agent will know how such deals are recorded and interpreted.
Be very careful about names. Near here, a guy was chairing a charity but also had a property management LLC. Turned out he was diverting donations to a similar-name sub-LLC and pocketing the money. Aside from you not wanting to enable such fraud, in the blow-up many innocent parties are being subpoenaed to testify to the fraud and tax investigation.
The whole idea of an LLC holding real property has problems. Real people own real property. When real people "lapse" (die) there is a whole estate process to close-out their assets. The earliest corporations were single-venture partnerships, the shareholders paid-off and corporation closed when the tea-ship came back from China. Of course today's corporations live forever, but almost-always a failed corp goes through Bankruptcy to settle the assets and claims. However LLCs "lapse" every day with no accounting. This should be sending red-flags through the real-property system (including title insurance companies). IMHO that property is ownerless. However there may be some accepted way to handle it. This would logically include quitclaim from later owners of the LLC name. It could be that you agreed that you would "take over" his LLC by your paying the LLC fees and buying the property of his LLC. Lawn services probably go hand to hand this way every year. He (and his buyers) need to know that you do not have any Claim on that property. But as with the guy putting charity into his business, you can't know if it is that simple.
OH!! You also want a reciprocal paper, saying that AAA LLC (2015) is NOT responsible for any debts, liabilities, or obligations of AAA LLC (2005), that the two shells are NOT related. This paper has no intrinsic value, but is something to show to debtors, judges, and taxmen who come after you for his failings. Of course they may not take it at face value: playing shell-games with LLCs is an old dodge. It might help to document the general nature of the two businesses (if he did lawn-service and you do electronic design, that's suggestive).
