California Affidavit of Death of Transferor

A California revocable transfer on death deed does its work the moment the transferor dies. Probate Code Section 5652 passes the transferor's interest to the surviving beneficiary at that instant, without probate and without anyone signing anything. The county record still shows the deceased transferor as the owner, and nothing in the chapter moves the record by itself. The affidavit of death of transferor closes that gap: a beneficiary's sworn statement, recorded where the property sits, that the transferor named in a recorded TOD deed has died.

Two statements, one recorded affidavit

Probate Code Section 5682 is the reason this affidavit exists in the shape it does. A person who later buys from or lends to the beneficiary gets the rights and protections of a distributee under a final order of distribution only when two things have reached the record: an affidavit of death recorded under Probate Code Section 210, and an affidavit containing a statement in substantially these words, that the named beneficiary served the notice required by Probate Code Section 5681. This form carries both. Section 5 states the death, the identity of the transferor named in the deed, the beneficiary's survival, and the certified copy attached; Section 6 carries the statement of service in the statute's own words, with the beneficiary's name in the blank. Where a deed named several beneficiaries, Section 5682(c)(2) provides that one beneficiary's compliance is enough.

The certified copy that travels with it

Probate Code Section 210 is general California death-of-owner law rather than TOD deed law, and it sets two conditions that shape the page. The affidavit includes a particular description of the real property, which is why the legal description block is sized for a full metes-and-bounds or platted description rather than a street address, and it includes an attested or certified copy of a record of the death, which is recorded with the affidavit. Section 211 sends the recorded document into the grantor and grantee index with the deceased transferor deemed the grantor, and Section 212 makes it prima facie evidence of the death for the property it identifies.

A recording date that starts a clock

The recording date matters beyond tidiness. Probate Code Section 5652(b) subjects the property to limitations recorded no later than 120 days after the Section 5682(c) affidavit is recorded, and Probate Code Section 5694 gives a contest commenced with a lis pendens recorded inside that same 120 days the power to void the deed and send the property to whoever is entitled to it. After that window, relief in a successful contest does not disturb a good faith purchaser or encumbrancer for value who acted first. The affidavit is the event those periods are measured from.

Signing, notarizing, and what follows at the counter

The affidavit is signed by one affiant. Its sworn quality comes from the declaration under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of California that Code of Civil Procedure Section 2015.5 gives the force of an affidavit, and its recordability comes from the notarial acknowledgment that Government Code Section 27287 requires before an instrument is recorded. The certificate is the Civil Code Section 1189 form, opening with the boxed notice that the officer verifies only the identity of the signer, and printing State of California as the statute prints it, leaving the county of the notarial act open. Probate Code Section 211(a) makes the affidavit answer to every ordinary recording requirement: the 2.5 inch first-page reserve, the requester and return entries in the left 3.5 inches, and the half inch side margins. No documentary transfer tax is due, because Revenue and Taxation Code Section 11930 exempts a transfer by reason of death, and the form says so on its face.

Two filings follow the death separately, outside this package: the change in ownership statement that Revenue and Taxation Code Section 480 calls for within 150 days of death, and the notice to the Director of Health Care Services under Probate Code Section 215 where the transferor received Medi-Cal benefits. This package contains the fill-in-the-blank affidavit, a completed example filled with a Riverside County fact pattern, and a guide that walks the form section by section and describes recording. It is a form package, not legal advice.