Ketchikan Gateway Borough Quitclaim Deed (Married Grantor with Non-Owner Spouse Joinder) Form

On this Alaska quitclaim deed, two people sign, but only one of them owns anything of record. The form is configured for a married grantor who holds title alone, and it pairs the owner's conveyance with a labeled signature line and acknowledgment certificate for the grantor's spouse, the joinder Alaska Statutes 34.15.010(b) describes for a deed of the family home or homestead by a married person. Anyone reading the recorded document, from a title examiner to a later purchaser, sees both signatures already in place, with no open question about the non-owner spouse.

The Signature That Owns Nothing

Alaska's joinder statute is unusual in reaching a spouse who does not appear on the title at all. Where the property conveyed is the family home or homestead, AS 34.15.010(b) directs the husband and wife to join in the deed, and the Alaska Supreme Court has applied the rule to a residence titled in one spouse's name alone. The statute balances that reach with two limits. Joinder vests nothing: AS 34.15.010(c) states that the requirement does not create a proprietary right, title, or interest in the joining spouse. And a missing joinder from a non-title spouse does not void the deed outright; instead, AS 34.15.010(d) opens a one-year window after recording during which that spouse may file suit in the judicial district where the land lies, or record a notice of interest, to unwind the conveyance. A deed recorded with the joinder already on it never meets that window.

What This Configuration Carries

The form names one record owner as grantor and names the grantor's spouse in a separate joining-spouse section, with the deed stating that the spouse does not appear on title. The spouse joins in the conveyance and quitclaims any interest that spouse may hold, and the deed repeats the statutory rule that joinder vests nothing in the joining spouse. Two signature lines and two acknowledgment certificates follow, one per signer, so the grantor and the joining spouse may acknowledge on different dates or before different notaries. A married owner who took title before the marriage, conveying the residence the couple occupies, presents the pattern this deed recites. The form is not set up as a deed from co-owning spouses; a conveyance by two record owners carries two grantors, each conveying a vested interest, which is a different configuration.

A Conveyance Without Covenants

The operative language tracks the statutory quitclaim form of AS 34.15.040: the grantor conveys and quitclaims all interest which the grantor has, if any, in the described real estate. A deed substantially in that form passes all the grantor's existing legal and equitable rights, in fee, to the grantee and the grantee's heirs and assigns. Alaska implies no covenants in a conveyance of real estate (AS 34.15.080), so the deed makes no promise that title is good or unencumbered. That bare-bones character is what keeps the quitclaim deed, sometimes searched as a quit claim deed form, in constant service for transfers between relatives, divorce and settlement conveyances, and cleanup of stray interests.

Recording in a State Without Counties

The document is drafted to Alaska's statewide recording standards: the first page holds two inches clear at the top for the recorder, the recording district where the land lies is named on the face of the deed, complete mailing addresses appear for the parties as AS 40.17.030 requires, and a return-to block tells the recorder where to send the original after recording. Fees are uniform across the state, $20 for the first page and $5 for each page after it, and Alaska collects no transfer tax with an ordinary deed. Once recorded, the deed gives constructive notice under AS 40.17.080; an unrecorded conveyance is void against a later innocent purchaser for value who records first.

The download delivers the quitclaim deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example showing the form filled in for an Anchorage fact pattern, and a plain-language guide that walks through every section, the joinder mechanics, and recording. The materials describe Alaska law in general terms and are not legal advice.