Ketchikan Gateway Borough Quitclaim Deed (Divorce) Form

Built around the transfer that follows an Alaska divorce or dissolution, this quitclaim deed recites one grantor, one grantee, and the superior court action that divided the property. The Alaska Quitclaim Deed (Divorce) carries the statutory conveyance language of AS 34.15.040, so the party giving up the property conveys and quitclaims every interest held, without warranty, and record title lands in the receiving party's name alone.

A deed that carries out the decree

An Alaska divorce or dissolution ends with a judgment dividing the parties' property under AS 25.24.160, but the judgment sits in a court file, not in the land records. The Alaska Court System's dissolution instructions describe the follow-through step: the parties prepare and record the deeds that complete the transfers the decree requires, because the court does not prepare those instruments. This deed is that recorded step for Alaska real property. Section 7 of the form identifies the court, the case number, and the date of the decree or judgment, so an examiner reading the chain of title years later can connect the recorded conveyance to the action that produced it. The same block accommodates a transfer signed while the case is pending under a written property settlement, with the decree information completing the court reference once the judgment enters.

One grantor, one signature, one certificate

The form recites exactly one grantor and one grantee who are or were married to each other. The conveying party alone signs, and the deed carries a single acknowledgment certificate matched to that signature line; the grantee takes without signing. The consideration entry recites the division of marital property rather than a purchase price, the pattern the completed example shows, and Alaska imposes no statewide transfer tax on the recording. The ownership pattern that presents this configuration in the record: both parties took title together during the marriage, the decree or settlement allocates the home or land to one of them, and the other conveys so the record shows a single owner. Because a quitclaim passes only the interest the grantor holds, a grantee who already owns an undivided half keeps it and takes the other half through the deed. The form is not set up as a conveyance by two owners to an outside buyer, and a transfer with no divorce or dissolution behind it follows a different pattern than this deed recites.

What divorce does to survivorship title in Alaska

Married Alaska couples commonly hold real property as tenants by the entirety, the spousal survivorship estate under AS 34.15.110(b) and AS 34.15.140. Divorce ends the spousal footing: AS 13.12.804 operates at divorce to sever former spouses' survivorship interests, transforming them into tenancies in common unless a governing instrument, court order, or contract relating to the marital estate says otherwise. Severance leaves each former spouse holding an undivided share that would pass through that person's own estate at death. The recorded quitclaim replaces that fractional aftermath with a single name in the title records, which is why this instrument appears at the end of so many Alaska divorce files.

Recording with Alaska's statewide recorder

The deed identifies the recording district where the property sits, one of the eligibility items Alaska sets for recorded documents, and goes to the Department of Natural Resources recorder with a fee of twenty dollars for the first page and five dollars for each additional page. The form also carries the complete mailing address of each party and a return address block, both recording conditions under AS 40.17.030. Priority is the reason timing matters after a divorce: under AS 40.17.080, an unrecorded deed binds the parties but is void against a later innocent purchaser for value who records first, so until the quit claim deed is recorded, the record still shows the grantor's interest for lenders and buyers to rely on.

What the package includes

The download delivers the fillable Alaska Quitclaim Deed (Divorce) formatted to the state's recording standards, a completed example showing an Anchorage Recording District transfer entered field by field, and a guide that walks through each section of the form, the signing formalities, and the recording process. The materials describe Alaska law in general terms and are not legal advice.