Delaware Transfer on Death Deed

A Delaware transfer on death deed names who receives real estate when the owner dies, and it works only if it reaches the county recorder's office while the owner is alive. Delaware adopted the Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act as Chapter 2 of Title 25 of the Delaware Code, effective December 4, 2025, making the TOD deed, also searched as a beneficiary deed, the state's newest probate-avoidance instrument. This product prepares that deed for one or two individual owners.

A deed that transfers nothing until death

Under 25 Del. C. § 212, a recorded transfer on death deed changes nothing during the owner's life: the owner keeps the right to transfer or encumber the property, the beneficiary holds no legal or equitable interest, and the owner's creditors are unaffected. The deed is revocable even if it says otherwise (§ 206). At death, § 213 transfers the owner's interest to the designated beneficiary who survives the owner, subject to every mortgage, lien, and other interest then affecting the property, and without covenant or warranty of title.

Recorded before death, or not at all

Section 209 lists four requirements, and the fourth decides whether the deed works at all: it must be recorded before the transferor's death with the recorder of deeds of the county where the property lies. A signed and notarized deed found in a drawer after death transfers nothing. The other three are the formalities of a recordable deed with notarized signatures, two witnesses at least one of whom is not a beneficiary, and a statement that the transfer occurs at death. The witness requirement is a Delaware addition to the uniform act.

Who may be named, and what happens to shares

The act defines a beneficiary as an individual (§ 202), so the beneficiary section names natural persons by printed name and mailing address, as the optional statutory form in § 216 does. More than one may be named; absent a different provision in the deed, § 213 gives them equal undivided shares with no survivorship among them, and a lapsed share passes proportionally to the others. Where the owners hold as joint tenants or by the entirety, § 213(c) sends the property to the surviving joint owner first, and the deed takes effect when the last surviving joint owner dies.

Changing course after recording

Under § 211, a recorded TOD deed is revoked only by a later transfer on death deed, an instrument of revocation, or a lifetime deed that expressly revokes it, each acknowledged after the original deed, witnessed by two individuals, and recorded before death; the § 216 form materials add that a will cannot revoke it. A revocation instrument is prepared and recorded separately and is not included in this package.

One form, one or two owners

The form carries one owner section that receives one or two individual owners signing in their own capacity, a beneficiary section sized for more than one beneficiary, the fixed statement that the transfer occurs at the owner's death, two witness blocks, two signature blocks, and a separate acknowledgment certificate for each signer. Nothing about marital status or how title is held is preprinted; the guide walks through those entries. A single owner, a married couple holding by the entirety, and two joint tenants present the patterns this form carries. It is not set up for an entity or trustee as owner, a signature by an attorney-in-fact, or three or more owners on one instrument.

Recording county by county

Delaware has no statewide deed format. Under 9 Del. C. § 9605(g), each county recorder sets its own paper size, margins, and type size, and the three differ, so a form built to one county's standard can draw a nonconforming fee or a rejection in another. For that reason the Delaware transfer on death deed is delivered as a county-specific version for New Castle County, Kent County, or Sussex County, and the purchase delivers the version matching the buyer's recording county. A TOD deed is excluded from the realty transfer tax and needs no transfer tax return or estimated income tax declaration at recording (30 Del. C. §§ 5401(1)a. and 5402(g)).

The package for the selected county includes the fillable transfer on death deed form, a completed example for a realistic Delaware fact pattern, and a guide that walks through every section with the governing statutes. These materials describe the form and Delaware law in general terms and are not legal advice.