Ketchikan Gateway Borough Special Warranty Deed (Executed by Attorney-in-Fact) Form

On this Alaska special warranty deed, the person signing is not the grantor. The form is set up for execution by an attorney-in-fact: the agent named in a power of attorney signs on the grantor's behalf, and the notary certificate follows Alaska's statutory short form of acknowledgment for a principal acting by an attorney-in-fact under AS 09.63.100(a)(5). The deed itself conveys Alaska real property with a warranty limited to the grantor's own time on the title.

A warranty limited to the grantor's own time

Alaska's statutes supply a full statutory warranty deed built on the words conveys and warrants (AS 34.15.030) and a quitclaim deed with no covenants (AS 34.15.040), and AS 34.15.080 provides that no covenant is implied in a conveyance of real estate. There is no statutory special warranty form, so the middle position exists in Alaska only as express covenant text. This deed writes that covenant out: the grantor warrants and defends the title against the lawful claims of all persons claiming by, through, or under the grantor, but not otherwise. A defect that arose before the grantor took title, such as an old encumbrance created by a prior owner, sits outside the covenant, which is why the instrument is also searched as a limited warranty deed. The deed states expressly that it is not a statutory warranty deed under AS 34.15.030 and that no covenant of title accompanies it beyond the special warranty it spells out.

When an agent signs the deed

Alaska deed law contemplates exactly this execution. AS 34.15.010(a) describes a conveyance signed by the grantor or by the grantor's duly authorized agent or attorney, and the authority comes from the power of attorney. Under AS 13.26.665(a), a statutory form power of attorney granting general authority over real estate transactions authorizes the agent to sell, convey, mortgage, encumber, and otherwise dispose of an estate or interest in land, and to execute, acknowledge, and deliver a deed. The form's attorney-in-fact section identifies the agent and the power relied on by date and recording reference, and the operative section states that the power is in effect and grants authority to convey. The acknowledgment matches the execution: the notary certifies that the instrument was acknowledged by the named attorney-in-fact on behalf of the named principal, in the wording of the statutory short form.

The power of attorney has its own formalities. A power executed in Alaska is valid where the principal signs it and acknowledges the signature before a notary public (AS 13.26.600). The principal's death ends the agent's authority, and the principal's incapacity ends it as well unless the power is durable (AS 13.26.620), so the deed is an instrument of the principal's lifetime.

The pattern this deed records

Powers of attorney appear in Alaska closings where the grantor is elsewhere when the deed is signed: an owner in assisted living whose adult child holds a durable power of attorney, a seller working a remote site during the closing window, a military family in mid-deployment. The record in those transactions shows a deed signed by the agent, the statutory acknowledgment naming both agent and principal, and, ordinarily, the power of attorney placed of record in the same district. The form carries one grantor, one executing signature, and one acknowledgment certificate; a deed in which two owners convey together presents a different signing pattern.

Recording in Alaska's district system

Alaska records deeds through the state Recorder's Office and its 34 recording districts rather than through county offices. The form identifies its recording district on its face, carries the return address and the grantor and grantee mailing addresses the recording statutes require, and reserves the top 2 inches of the first page for the recorder per 11 AAC 06.040. Alaska has no statewide transfer tax and no transfer declaration, so the acknowledged deed and the recording fee, currently $20 for the first page and $5 for each additional page, ordinarily make up the whole recording package. A power of attorney is itself an acknowledged document eligible for recording under AS 40.17.110; where it is not already of record, it is recorded separately with its own fee.

The download includes the special warranty deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example showing the deed filled in for an Anchorage Recording District fact pattern, and a plain language guide that walks through every numbered section, the attorney-in-fact acknowledgment, and Alaska's recording requirements. The materials describe Alaska law in general terms and are not legal advice.