Santa Cruz County Affidavit of Death Beneficiary Deed (Sole Owner) Form

An Arizona beneficiary deed does its work the instant the owner dies. The property is already the beneficiary's, with no court order and no closing, yet the recorder's index still names the person who died. This form prepares the sworn affidavit that closes that gap in the simplest version of the situation: one deceased owner who held the property alone and signed the beneficiary deed alone, and one surviving grantee beneficiary who swears to the death and records a certified death certificate with it.

A transfer that already happened

A.R.S. Section 33-405, the statute behind what other states call a transfer on death deed or TOD deed, provides that a deed conveying real property to a grantee beneficiary designated by the owner, and expressly stating that it is effective on the death of the owner, transfers that interest effective on the owner's death, subject to every mortgage, deed of trust, lien and other encumbrance the owner made or was subject to in life. The affidavit adds nothing to that transfer. It is evidence for the record, so that a title examiner, lender, or buyer reading the chain years later finds the death, the deed reference, and the beneficiary's survival in one instrument. The beneficiary deed itself is signed and recorded during the owner's lifetime and is a separate document, not part of this package.

One owner, one signature, one certificate

This version recites a deceased owner who was the sole owner of record and the only owner who executed the beneficiary deed, and one affiant, the grantee beneficiary designated in that deed, who survived the owner. The form prints those facts as fixed text rather than leaving them to a blank, and carries one signature block and one notarial certificate to match. Property held by two owners with a right of survivorship, a beneficiary deed signed by more than one owner, and a successor beneficiary claiming because the primary beneficiary died first are patterns this form does not recite; Section 33-405(D) sends survivorship property to the death of the last surviving owner.

What the affiant swears to

Each printed statement tracks a condition Section 33-405 attaches to the deed's operation. The owner died on the stated date, and a certified death certificate is attached. The owner was the sole owner of record and the only signer of the deed. The deed was recorded in the right county before that death and states that it is effective on the owner's death, which is the statute's validity rule. The affiant is a designated grantee beneficiary who survived the owner, which matters because Section 33-405(C) makes a deed void where no named beneficiary survives. No revocation appears of record, and no later beneficiary deed is known to have been recorded before the death, since Section 33-405(G) gives effect to the last one recorded.

The certificate an Arizona sworn record carries

An affidavit is verified on oath or affirmation, not acknowledged, and Arizona keeps the two acts apart with separate statutory short forms. The certificate on this form follows A.R.S. Section 41-265(3): the venue, the sworn sentence signed and sworn to or affirmed before the officer on a stated date by the named individual, and the officer's signature, printed name, state, and commission expiration. It also carries the record identification block A.R.S. Section 41-264(F) describes for a certificate on a separate sheet, namely the title or type of record, its date, its page count, and the additional signers line, which reads None because one person signs this affidavit.

Recording it where the record lives

The affidavit and the certified death certificate go to the county recorder for the county where the property sits. A.R.S. Section 11-480 supplies the format rules applied at the counter: a caption naming the instrument, an original legible enough to copy, original signatures, paper no larger than 8.5 by 14 inches, type no smaller than ten points, and two inches reserved atop the first page. The left three and one half inches of that space may carry the requester name and the return address, where this form places both. A.R.S. Section 11-475 sets a thirty dollar fee for recording an instrument, and each county publishes its own schedule.

The package includes the blank fillable affidavit, a completed example filled in for a realistic Maricopa County fact pattern, and a guide that walks through every numbered section, the notarial certificate, and Arizona recording practice. The materials describe the form and the governing statutes in general terms and are not legal advice.