Ketchikan Gateway Borough Special Warranty Deed (Married Couple as Grantors) Form

One Alaska deed, two married grantors: this special warranty deed is arranged for spouses who convey Alaska real property together, with a grantor block, a signature line, and a notary certificate for each of them. The configuration answers the question Alaska law asks about a couple's conveyance before it is asked: AS 34.15.010(b) calls for both spouses to join in a deed of the family home or homestead, and this deed carries that joinder on its face because both spouses are named as grantors and both sign.

A warranty limited to the sellers' own time on title

A special warranty deed, often searched as a limited warranty deed, promises less than a full warranty and more than a quitclaim. The grantors covenant to warrant and defend the title against claims arising by, through, or under the grantors, and against no other claims. A title problem the couple created or allowed during their ownership is theirs to answer for; a defect that arose before they took title sits outside the covenant.

Alaska drafting has a wrinkle here that the form is built around. The state supplies a statutory warranty deed at AS 34.15.030 and a statutory quitclaim at AS 34.15.040, but no statutory special warranty form, and AS 34.15.080 provides that no covenant is implied in a conveyance of real estate. A limited warranty therefore exists in Alaska only where the deed spells it out. This form states the covenant expressly, together with the statement that no other covenant of title, express or implied, is made, so the deed's warranty is exactly what its text says and nothing more.

Two spouses, one deed, two certificates

The form recites exactly two grantors who state that they are married to each other. Spouses who took title together, whether as tenants by the entirety under AS 34.15.110(b) or under an Alaska community property arrangement, present the two-grantor pattern this deed recites, as does a couple where one spouse holds record title to the family home and the other joins under the statute. The deed carries a separate acknowledgment certificate for each spouse, so the two can sign on different dates, before different notaries, or in different states, with each certificate following the Alaska statutory short form pattern and its judicial district venue. The form is not arranged as a sole-owner conveyance or an entity conveyance; it recites two individual grantors, married to each other.

Recording in Alaska's district system

Alaska records deeds through a statewide Recorder's Office within the Department of Natural Resources, organized into 34 recording districts rather than county offices, and the recording district's name must appear on the document; the form carries a blank for it beside the legal description. Alaska recording law also expects the complete mailing address of each grantor and grantee and a return name and address on the face of the deed, and the form carries a blank for each. The page layout reserves the top two inches of page one and holds one-inch margins and 10 point type, matching 11 AAC 06.040, and there is no statewide transfer tax and no transfer declaration to file, so the signed and acknowledged deed with the recording fee, $20 for the first page and $5 for each additional page, is the complete recording package.

What arrives with the form

The package contains the blank deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example showing the entire document filled in for a realistic Anchorage fact pattern, and a plain language guide that walks through every numbered section, the ways a grantee may hold title under Alaska law, the signing formalities, and the recording steps. The materials describe Alaska law in general terms and are not legal advice; an Alaska attorney can address how these rules operate on a specific title or transaction.