Santa Cruz County Affidavit of Death Beneficiary Deed (Last Surviving Joint Tenant) Form

Property held by two joint tenants with right of survivorship passes twice before a beneficiary deed ever operates. The first owner's death moves that interest to the co-owner by survivorship. The last surviving owner's death is the one A.R.S. Section 33-405(D) attaches the beneficiary deed to. This package covers the sworn statement that puts the second of those deaths, and its link to the recorded deed, in front of the next title examiner who reads the chain.

Why the deed waits for the last owner

Arizona's beneficiary deed is the state's version of what is elsewhere searched as a transfer on death deed or TOD deed, and Section 33-405(D) gives survivorship property its own rule. A deed designated by all of the then surviving owners, expressly stating that it is effective on the death of the last surviving owner, transfers the interest effective on that death. A deed signed by fewer than all owners is still valid where the last surviving owner is one of the signers, and where the last surviving owner did not sign it, the transfer lapses and the deed is void. The same subsection puts a surviving joint tenant ahead of any grantee beneficiary a departing co-owner named alone. Everything the affidavit recites about the deceased owner tracks that subsection: last surviving owner of the property, and one of the people who executed the deed.

The first death has its own paper

Nothing about the earlier death is assumed. Section 3 of the affidavit names the joint tenant who died first, states that date, and points to the recorded evidence of it, which in Arizona practice is the affidavit A.R.S. Section 33-431(F) describes together with an attached death certificate. That instrument is recorded on its own after the first death and is not part of this package. It also asks for one thing this affidavit does not: Section 33-431(F) lists the cause of death among its contents, and no statute asks for it here.

One affiant swearing to a two death chain

The configuration is printed into the form rather than left to a blank. The affidavit recites a deceased owner who held title as a joint tenant with right of survivorship, survived the co-owner named in Section 3, was thereafter the last surviving owner, and executed the beneficiary deed. It recites one affiant, a grantee beneficiary designated in that deed who survived that owner, and it carries a single signature block with a single notarial certificate. Two relatives who took title together with a right of survivorship and named a third person between them, and unmarried co-owners who designated one beneficiary while both were living, present the pattern the form recites. A chain with only one owner and one death runs differently, spouses holding as community property with right of survivorship hold a different estate under Section 33-431(C), and three or more record owners are not what these sections describe.

At the recorder's counter

An affidavit is verified on oath or affirmation rather than acknowledged, and Arizona gives that act its own statutory wording in A.R.S. Section 41-265(3), which the certificate on this form uses, together with the record description A.R.S. Section 41-264(F) calls for on a certificate sheet. The affidavit and a certified copy of the death certificate go to the recorder for the county where the land sits. A.R.S. Section 11-480 governs the page itself: a caption naming the instrument, an original legible enough to copy, original signatures, paper within 8.5 by 14 inches, ten point type at a minimum, and two inches held open at the top of page one. Recording runs thirty dollars under A.R.S. Section 11-475, with county schedules published locally. No affidavit of property value rides along, because Section 11-1133 keys that requirement to deeds evidencing a transfer of title and to sale contracts.

Included are the blank fillable affidavit, a completed example built on a Pima County fact pattern with dates and instrument numbers that line up, and a guide covering every section, the certificate, and Arizona recording practice. These materials describe the form and the statutes behind it in general terms and are not legal advice.