District Of Columbia Affidavit of Death of Transferor (TODD Beneficiary)

When the owner of District of Columbia real estate dies after recording a transfer on death deed, the property passes to the named beneficiary at the moment of death, by operation of D.C. Code sec. 19-604.13 and without probate. What the land records do not yet show is that the death happened. This District of Columbia Affidavit of Death of Transferor is the sworn instrument a designated beneficiary records to put that fact, and the facts the transfer depends on, into the record.

A transfer that happens by statute, and a record that has to catch up

A District transfer on death deed, sometimes searched as a TOD deed or beneficiary deed, is effective only if it was recorded before the transferor died, so the record already holds the deed. Nothing in the record holds the death. The affidavit supplies it: the transferor's name and date of death, the recording date and instrument number of the deed, the square, lot, and legal description of the property, and the affiant's sworn statements about survival, joint ownership, and revocation, with a copy of the death certificate attached.

What the beneficiary swears to

The statements in Section 4 track the chapter. The affiant is a designated beneficiary named in the deed. The affiant survived the transferor by more than 120 hours, the measure of sec. 19-502, which sec. 19-604.13(a) lets govern a beneficiary's survival. The transferor was not survived by any joint owner holding with right of survivorship, because under sec. 19-604.13(c) and (d) a deed made by a joint owner yields to a surviving joint owner and operates only at the death of the last one; the statutory term reaches joint tenants and tenants by the entirety and excludes tenants in common. And at the death no revocation had been recorded, which under sec. 19-604.11 is the only way a recorded deed is revoked. Section 5 lists any other designated beneficiary the deed names.

Sworn, not acknowledged

Because the affidavit is a sworn statement, the certificate below the signature is a jurat, a verification on oath or affirmation, not the acknowledgment that appears on a deed. The form carries the District's statutory short form for that act, D.C. Code sec. 1-1231.15(3), word for word. The certificate has blanks for the jurisdiction where the oath is taken, the date, and the officer's signature, printed name, title, and commission expiration, and a reserved area for the official seal the District's notarial law places on every paper certificate. An affiant who swears before a notary of another state receives that state's certificate, and District law gives the act the same effect.

Where the affidavit fits in the Recorder's process

The Recorder of Deeds publishes the package it looks for when a deed pursuant to a transfer on death deed is presented: a newly drafted confirmatory deed reciting the deed's recording information, Form FP-7/C, a copy of the death certificate, and a copy of the recorded transfer on death deed. That confirmatory deed is prepared separately and is not included in this package; it is the instrument that is exempt from the District's recordation and transfer taxes under secs. 42-1102(34) and 47-902(26). The affidavit on this form is the sworn evidence of the facts behind that deed, and it records on its own as a document other than a deed, at the Recorder's flat fee plus the statutory surcharge. Recording it gives notice; it is not a condition of the transfer, which the statute completed at death.

One affiant, one certificate

The form identifies one affiant, a natural person who is a designated beneficiary named in the deed, signing in an individual capacity, with one signature block and one jurat. A single beneficiary taking the whole property, and one of several concurrent beneficiaries swearing to that beneficiary's own position while listing the others, both present the pattern the form carries. A beneficiary that is a trust or an entity acting through a representative, a death that leaves a surviving joint owner, and a beneficiary who disclaims under sec. 19-604.14 are configurations the form is not set up to document.

The package includes the fillable affidavit, a completed example filled in for a realistic District of Columbia fact pattern, and the guide that walks through each section, the governing statutes, and the recording process. This description and the guide describe the form and the law in general terms; they are not legal advice.