Santa Cruz County Affidavit of Death Beneficiary Deed (Last Surviving Spouse, Community Property, Right of Survivorship) Form

Two Arizona spouses who held their home as community property with right of survivorship, and who signed one beneficiary deed together, built a transfer that waits for the second death. When the survivor dies, the property belongs to the grantee beneficiary named in that deed. This form prepares the sworn affidavit that puts the sequence into the county record: the first spouse's death, the survivor's death, the two recorded instruments behind them, and one grantee beneficiary who lived to receive the property.

Why the second death is the one that counts

A.R.S. Section 33-405(D) writes the survivorship rule directly into the beneficiary deed statute. For property held as community property with right of survivorship, 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 at that death. The first death does no work under the deed: survivorship carries the estate to the surviving spouse, and the designation keeps waiting. Subsection D also guards the survivor, providing that a surviving spouse's rights prevail over a grantee beneficiary named in a deed fewer than all the owners executed, and that a deed the last surviving owner never executed lapses and is void.

An affidavit for a transfer that already happened

Nothing in this affidavit moves title. The interest passed by operation of the statute the moment the last surviving owner died, subject to every mortgage, deed of trust, lien, and other encumbrance either owner created during life. The recorder's index, though, still shows two living spouses on the vesting deed. This instrument closes that sequence: recorded where the property sits, it hands a later title examiner, lender, or buyer both dates of death, the recording references for the survivorship instrument and for the beneficiary deed, and the sworn word of the person who now holds the property. Arizona prescribes no statutory form for the job, so the statements track the conditions Section 33-405 attaches to the deed's operation.

What the affidavit states under oath

Section 7 holds no blanks. Each owner died on the date entered for that owner, with a certified death certificate attached for each. The two were spouses holding title as community property with right of survivorship under a recorded instrument the form identifies, the estate vested in the survivor at the first death, and that survivor was the last surviving owner. Their beneficiary deed was executed by both, states the last-survivor trigger, and reached the recorder before that death, the validity condition in subsection E. The affiant is a designated grantee beneficiary who survived, which matters because subsection C voids a deed where no named beneficiary survives. No revocation is of record or known, and no later deed is known to have reached the recorder first, since subsection G gives effect to the last one recorded.

One affiant, one sworn certificate

The form recites exactly two record owners who were spouses, and one affiant, the surviving grantee beneficiary, printing that configuration as fixed text rather than as choices. There is one signature block and one notarial certificate, drawn for a verification on oath or affirmation under A.R.S. Section 41-265(3), the sworn form Arizona keeps separate from the acknowledgment a deed carries, plus the record description Section 41-264(F) attaches to a certificate on a separate sheet. A designation by an owner who held the property alone, and a successor beneficiary taking under a stated condition, each follow a different pattern. Searches for an Arizona transfer on death deed or TOD deed reach the same instrument under its statutory name, the beneficiary deed.

Recording where the chain lives

The affidavit and the death certificates go to the recorder for the county holding the property, the office A.R.S. Section 33-411(A) makes the place where an instrument affecting real property imparts notice. Section 11-480 governs the page, including the two inches held open atop page one, whose left three and one half inches may carry the requester and return address this form prints there. One Arizona wrinkle: the affidavit of property value that Section 11-1133 appends to a deed evidencing a transfer of title is not triggered here, an affidavit of death being neither that deed nor a sale contract, so no exemption notation is preprinted.

Included with the purchase are the blank fillable affidavit, a completed example prepared for a realistic Pima County fact pattern, and a guide covering each section, the notarial certificate, and Arizona recording mechanics. These materials describe the form and the Arizona statutes in general terms and are not legal advice.