Santa Cruz County Disclaimer Deed (Spousal) Form

One signature line, and it belongs to the spouse who receives nothing. This Arizona Disclaimer Deed is the spousal instrument recorded when one spouse takes title to Arizona real property as sole and separate property: the other spouse signs the deed, disclaiming any interest in the property, and the acquiring spouse signs nothing at all. What the signer executes is a recorded statement of what the signer does not own.

Why an Arizona purchase in one name produces this deed

Arizona presumes that property acquired by either spouse during marriage is community property under A.R.S. Section 25-211, and Section 25-214 requires both spouses to join in any disposition or encumbrance of community real property. A married buyer taking title alone, most often because a lender underwrites one spouse's income and credit, leaves that presumption sitting on the record. The disclaimer deed is the title industry's answer: escrow obtains the non-acquiring spouse's disclaimer and records it alongside the vesting deed, so the record carries both the sole and separate vesting and the other spouse's release of any community claim. The same instrument appears at refinances and where a spouse confirms of record that premarital or inherited property remains separate property under Section 25-213.

What the disclaimer recites and releases

The form recites that the spouses are married, that the acquiring spouse purchased or acquired the property as sole and separate property with separate funds or separate credit, and that the disclaiming spouse holds no past or present interest. It then disclaims, remises, releases, and forever quitclaims to the acquiring spouse all right, title, interest, claim, or lien, past, present, or future, including any interest arising under Arizona community property law. Arizona's appellate courts give that language real force: in Bell-Kilbourn v. Bell-Kilbourn (App. 2007), the court held that a disclaimer deed rebuts the community property presumption and is enforced as a binding contract in the absence of fraud or mistake, whatever the lending motive behind the titling decision.

The equitable lien that survives the signature

Disclaiming ownership does not disclaim reimbursement. The same case law recognizes that community funds later spent paying the mortgage or improving the property entitle the marital community to an equitable lien on the separate property, and the Arizona Supreme Court in Saba v. Khoury (2022) confirmed the Drahos/Barnett formula as the starting point for measuring that lien. The guide in this package describes that boundary plainly, so the deed's effect on ownership and its non-effect on reimbursement both stay visible.

One couple, one property, one signer

The form names the disclaiming spouse and the acquiring spouse, identifies the property by county, legal description, and street address, identifies the vesting instrument the deed accompanies, and carries an optional special provisions section. The operative section performs the disclaimer in full prose, and the signature page holds exactly one signature line and one acknowledgment certificate in the Arizona statutory short form. A purchase closing in one spouse's name, a refinance underwritten on one spouse's credit, and a recorded confirmation of separate property present the pattern this deed recites. The form is not set up as a conveyance between spouses; an existing community interest moves by a deed that transfers title rather than by a disclaimer of an interest never held, and a couple disclaiming in each direction presents two single-signer deeds rather than one document.

Recording with the Arizona county recorder

The deed meets the Arizona format statute, A.R.S. Section 11-480: a caption naming the instrument, 10 point and larger print, letter size pages, and a first page that reserves the top margin for recording information. The recording fee is thirty dollars under Section 11-475. Because the transaction involves no monetary consideration, the deed carries the exemption notation Arizona recorders require in place of an Affidavit of Property Value, on a dedicated line beneath the legal description where the exemption code, commonly B3 for a spousal transfer or A4 for a no-consideration quitclaim, is entered.

The package contains the blank disclaimer deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example showing every entry made for a realistic Maricopa County fact pattern, and a plain language guide that walks through the form section by section with the governing statutes and case law. The materials are informational and are not legal advice.