Ketchikan Gateway Borough Warranty Deed (Married Grantor with Spouse Joinder) Form

An Alaska warranty deed signed by a married owner often carries two signatures for one conveyance: the grantor who holds record title, and the grantor's spouse, who joins in the deed without taking or giving up any interest. This form prepares exactly that instrument, an Alaska statutory warranty deed under AS 34.15.030 with a built-in spousal joinder section under AS 34.15.010(b), for one married grantor conveying Alaska real property.

Why a second signature appears on a married owner's deed

AS 34.15.010(b) provides that in a deed or conveyance of the family home or homestead by a married person, the husband and wife join in the deed. The Alaska Supreme Court has drawn the statute's edges: the protected property is the residence in which the family resides, a family-home conveyance that a title-holding spouse did not join is invalid, and a conveyance made without a non-title spouse's joinder remains open to a suit or a recorded notice of interest for one year. The joinder section of this deed carries the second signature that settles the statutory question on the face of the record, together with the AS 34.15.010(c) statement that the joinder vests no proprietary right, title, or interest in the joining spouse.

The covenants that ride with conveys and warrants

The operative words come straight from the statute. A deed substantially in the AS 34.15.030 form, using the words conveys and warrants, is a conveyance in fee simple carrying three covenants: that the grantor is lawfully seized of an indefeasible estate in fee simple and has the right and power to convey, that the premises are free from encumbrances, and that the grantor warrants quiet and peaceable possession and will defend the title against all persons claiming the premises. Alaska implies no covenant in a conveyance (AS 34.15.080), so this deed states the covenants at length and ties the encumbrance covenant to its exceptions section, where an existing deed of trust, easements, and plat notes of record are listed. After-acquired title passes to the grantee by operation of law under a warranty deed (AS 34.15.075).

The configuration this deed carries

The form recites one grantor, a married record owner, and one joining spouse, each identified with a full name and complete mailing address. It carries two signature blocks and two acknowledgment certificates, so the grantor and the joining spouse may acknowledge on different dates, before different officers, or in different states, with the Alaska judicial-district venue of AS 09.63.100 printed in each certificate. The grantee section takes one or more grantees together with the ownership form they select, and the completed example shows a married couple taking as tenants by the entirety. The single-grantor pattern appears in the record where a residence is titled in one spouse's name during the marriage; a deed in which both spouses hold record title and both convey follows a different configuration, with both owners in the grantor section, and this form is not set up that way.

Recording in Alaska's district system

Alaska records deeds through a statewide recorder's office organized into 34 recording districts rather than county offices, and this deed names its recording district on its face, as AS 40.17.030(a)(9) requires. The layout follows the state format rules: a two-inch recording reserve at the top of the first page, one-inch margins elsewhere, 10 point type, and the return-address block the recorder requires before accepting a document. Alaska imposes no statewide transfer tax or deed transfer declaration, so the signed and acknowledged deed, with the recording fee, is the complete package presented for recording in the district where the property is located.

The purchase includes the blank deed as a fillable PDF formatted to Alaska recording standards, a completed example showing the entire document filled in for an Anchorage fact pattern, and a plain-language guide that walks through each numbered section, the joinder statute and the decisions construing it, and the recording steps. The materials describe Alaska law in general terms and are not legal advice.