Apache County Quitclaim Deed (Reserving Life Estate) Form

The grantor who signs this Arizona quitclaim deed gives the property away and keeps living in it. The form conveys the parcel to the grantee with Arizona's statutory quitclaim words under Section 33-402(1) and reserves a life estate in the same operative clause: the grantee takes a vested remainder the day the deed is delivered, and the grantor keeps the exclusive right to occupy the property, use it, and collect its rents and income for life.

Keeping a life estate, giving the remainder

A reserved life estate splits one title into two present interests. The life estate stays with the grantor, who remains the person in possession. The remainder passes to the grantee now, as real property the grantee already owns while waiting for possession. When the life tenant dies, the life estate simply expires, and the grantee holds the whole title without probate of the interest that passed under the deed and without any new conveyance. Arizona statute separately recognizes a revocable instrument under Section 33-405 that conveys nothing until death; a life estate deed takes the opposite path. The transfer is present and binding, so after delivery the grantor alone cannot revoke the deed, name a different taker, or sell or mortgage the fee free of the remainder. That permanence is the trade written on the face of the deed: the power to change course is given up for the certainty that the property's destination is fixed while lifetime possession stays put.

What the reservation clause carries

The conveyance and the reservation travel in one operative section. The form quit claims all of the grantor's right, title, and interest to the grantee, reserves the life estate for the life of the grantor, or for the joint lives of two grantors and the survivor of them, and states expressly that no covenant or warranty of title and no power of revocation attach. Around that clause the form recites one or two grantors, who are also the life tenants; a grantee section with its own vesting line for the remainder; and two signature blocks, each with a separate acknowledgment certificate, so spouses conveying community real property can both join as A.R.S. Section 25-214(C) requires, before different notaries or on different dates where distance calls for it. The form is not set up as a grant of a life estate to a third person, and it reserves no power to sell or revoke without the grantee; the reservation runs to the signers themselves. An owner passing the remainder in a family residence to an adult child while keeping lifetime occupancy, and a widowed owner fixing where a home goes while continuing to live in it, present the pattern this deed recites.

Through the recorder's door with code B3

A life estate reservation changes none of Arizona's recording arithmetic. The flat thirty dollar fee of Section 11-475 covers the deed, the two dollar transfer fee of Section 11-1132 rides inside it, and the Affidavit of Property Value checkpoint of Section 11-1133 still stands at the counter. The family transfers this configuration usually documents tend to be exempt from the affidavit: Section 11-1134(B)(3) reaches a transfer of residential property between family members for only nominal actual consideration, and the notation goes on the face of the deed beneath the legal description. The completed example carries that entry, A.R.S. 11-1134 B3, for a Mesa home whose widowed owner deeds the remainder to her daughter and keeps possession for life. Acknowledgments taken on or after September 12, 2026 also gain a new journal entry, the signer's thumbprint, required by Arizona's 2026 anti-fraud act.

The download includes the blank deed as a fillable PDF, the completed Maricopa County example, and a section by section guide covering the reservation clause, the remainder vesting options, signing, and recording. The materials are informational and are not legal advice.