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

One spouse holds record title; both spouses sign. That is the architecture of this Alaska Special Warranty Deed, built for a married grantor who owns Alaska real property alone and conveys it with a joinder signature from the grantor's non-owner spouse under AS 34.15.010(b). The package pairs a limited warranty of title with the signature pattern Alaska's family home and homestead statute describes.

A warranty limited to the grantor's own chapter of title

Alaska's conveyance statutes supply forms for a full warranty deed (AS 34.15.030) and a quitclaim deed (AS 34.15.040), and nothing in between; AS 34.15.080 adds that no covenant is implied in a conveyance of real estate. A special warranty deed, also searched as a limited warranty deed, therefore exists in Alaska only as express drafting. This deed conveys with express words of grant and covenants that the grantor will warrant and defend the title against claims arising by, through, or under the grantor, but not otherwise. Defects and encumbrances older than the grantor's own ownership sit outside the covenant, and matters listed in the deed and of record ride through the conveyance. The form also states on its face that it does not use the AS 34.15.030 operative words, so the statute's full covenants do not attach by accident.

Why the non-owner spouse signs

AS 34.15.010(b) provides that husband and wife join in a deed or conveyance of the family home or homestead. The Alaska Supreme Court has read the protected property as the residence in which the family resides (Gottstein v. Kraft) and has spelled out the consequence of a missing joinder (National Bank of Alaska v. Ketzler): where the nonjoining spouse does not appear on title, the recorded deed conveys legal title subject to a one-year window in which that spouse may sue to set the deed aside or record a notice of interest under AS 34.15.010(d). A joinder signed with the deed closes that window from the start. AS 34.15.010(c) states the counterweight: joining vests no right, title, or interest in the joining spouse, a point the deed itself carries in its joinder section.

What this configuration carries

The form recites one married grantor who holds title alone, a joining spouse identified as holding no record interest, and the grantee side of the conveyance, with the consideration, recording district, legal description, source of title, and the matters to which title is subject each in a numbered section. Two signature blocks and two acknowledgment certificates follow, so the grantor and the joining spouse may acknowledge on different dates, before different notaries, or in different states. The joinder section states its statutory purpose and confirms that the special warranty remains the grantor's covenant alone. A sale of a residence titled in one spouse's name, and a transfer of separately titled property while the marital household occupies it, present the record pattern this deed recites; a married couple who both appear on title, an unmarried sole owner, and an entity or trustee grantor each present a different signature architecture than this form carries.

Built for Alaska's statewide recording system

Alaska records deeds through the Department of Natural Resources recorder's office and its 34 recording districts rather than through county offices, and the form carries the district-specific elements the recorder checks: a blank for the recording district (AS 40.17.030(a)(9)), complete mailing addresses for the granting and acquiring parties (AS 40.17.030(a)(8)), and the return name and mailing address the recorder uses after recording. The layout reserves the top two inches of the first page for the recording stamp and holds one-inch margins with 10 point and larger type, tracking 11 AAC 06.040. Alaska imposes no transfer tax on an ordinary deed, so the deed and the recording fee, 20 dollars for the first page and 5 dollars for each additional page, are the whole package at the counter.

What is included

The download contains the blank Alaska special warranty deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example filled in for an Anchorage Recording District fact pattern, and a plain-language guide that walks through every numbered section, the spouse joinder mechanics, the notarization options including Alaska's judicial-district venue, and the recording steps. The materials are informational and are not legal advice.