Ketchikan Gateway Borough Warranty Deed Form

One grantor, one signature line, one acknowledgment certificate: this Alaska warranty deed is set up for a single owner conveying Alaska real property with full statutory title covenants. The form follows the statutory warranty deed language of Alaska Statutes Section 34.15.030 and prepares a deed ready for Alaska's statewide recording system.

Two words that carry three covenants

Alaska concentrates the entire warranty into the statutory operative words, conveys and warrants. Under AS 34.15.030(b), a deed substantially in the statutory form conveys a fee simple and binds three title covenants into it by operation of law: lawful seisin with the right and power to convey, a clear title free from encumbrances at delivery, and a promise of quiet and peaceable possession backed by the grantor's duty to defend the title. AS 34.15.080 is the reason the statutory wording matters more in Alaska than in most states: Alaska implies no covenant in a conveyance, so the protection a buyer associates with a general warranty deed exists only because the deed carries it. AS 34.15.075 adds that title the grantor acquires after delivering this deed passes automatically to the grantee, and the covenants bind the grantor's heirs and personal representative as if written out in full.

Built around a single grantor

The form recites exactly one grantor. Its signature section carries one line, and its notary section carries one acknowledgment certificate matching that signer, laid out on the Alaska short form of AS 09.63.100 with the judicial district venue an Alaska notary uses and the county venue an out-of-state notary uses. A sole owner selling a home, an unmarried titleholder deeding land to a relative, and a single owner conveying an investment parcel present the one-grantor pattern this deed recites. The form is not set up as a two-grantor or spousal joinder instrument: it carries no second signature block, and a conveyance of a married owner's family home, in which AS 34.15.010(b) requires both spouses to join, follows a different signing pattern. The grantor and grantee entries each take a full legal name and complete mailing address, because AS 40.17.030(a)(8) makes both addresses part of recordability in Alaska.

Recording districts instead of counties

Alaska records deeds through a single statewide recorder's office organized into 34 recording districts; there are no county recorders. The deed names its recording district on the first page, a recording eligibility item under AS 40.17.030, and the layout reserves the top two inches of page one for the recorder along with the one inch margins and 10 point minimum type of 11 AAC 06.040. Recording fees run $20 for the first page and $5 for each additional page, and Alaska collects no transfer tax and requires no transfer declaration, so the deed and the fee are the complete recording package. Under the recording act, AS 40.17.080, an unrecorded deed remains valid between the parties but is void against a later innocent purchaser for value who records first; the recorded deed is what protects the grantee's priority.

Nine sections that feed one operative clause

Numbered sections collect the grantor, the grantee, the consideration, the recording district and formal legal description, the property address, the source of title, and the exceptions to which the conveyance is subject. The operative section then conveys and warrants by reference to those entries. On a warranty deed the exceptions section does real legal work: the covenant against encumbrances reaches every matter not listed there, so recorded easements, plat notes, and patent reservations belong in that section to stay outside the warranty. The completed example fills every blank for a realistic Anchorage Recording District conveyance, from the plat-based legal description through the notary block, and the guide walks through each section, the acknowledgment, and the statewide recording steps in plain language.

The download includes the blank statutory warranty deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example showing the entire document filled in for an Anchorage fact pattern, and a plain language guide to completing, signing, and recording the deed. The materials are informational and are not legal advice; an Alaska attorney can apply these statutes to a specific title or transaction.