Kansas Transfer on Death Deed (Two Unmarried Owners - Joint Tenants with Right of Survivorship)

This Kansas transfer on death deed recites a pair: two unmarried record owners who hold real estate as joint tenants with right of survivorship, naming in one recorded instrument who takes the property after both are gone. It is prepared under K.S.A. 59-3501 through 59-3507 with the two-owner joint tenancy recital fixed as deed text, and it is also searched for as a Kansas TOD deed or beneficiary deed for joint tenants.

A deed that waits for the second death

K.S.A. 59-3505 gives joint tenants their own rule: a record joint owner may title an interest in transfer-on-death form, title vests in the grantee beneficiary only if that joint owner is the last to die of all the record joint owners, and the deed does not sever the joint tenancy. Survivorship runs first: when one owner dies, the whole interest belongs to the survivor under K.S.A. 58-501 and the deed transfers nothing. The designation operates at the second death, when the beneficiaries named on the deed take outside probate. This form prints that timing on its face, in a sentence following the statutory legend.

Two unmarried joint tenants, recited and signed

Section 1 opens with a fixed recital that the two owners named below are each an unmarried person and hold the described interest as joint tenants with right of survivorship and not as tenants in common, the phrasing the Kansas Supreme Court has accepted as a clear expression of joint tenancy intent under K.S.A. 58-501. Beneath it sit exactly two owner blocks, and at the end two signature blocks headed OWNER 1 and OWNER 2, each followed by its own acknowledgment certificate in the K.A.R. 7-43-17 short form. The unmarried recital matters in Kansas: the homestead joint-consent rule of the state constitution and the surviving-spouse protection of K.S.A. 59-505 are written around a marriage, and the deed states on its face that neither owner is in one.

What stays verbatim from the statute

K.S.A. 59-3502 requires a deed in substantially the statutory form, and this deed keeps it: the owners transfer on death to the named grantee beneficiary the described interest in real estate, with the statute's insertion cues printed where the blanks fall and the capitalized legend following word for word. An optional Section 5 names an alternative grantee beneficiary to succeed to a beneficiary who dies first, the designation K.S.A. 59-3504(c)(1) looks for before a share lapses; where none is named and the deceased beneficiary leaves issue, K.S.A. 59-3504(c)(2) carries the share to that issue per stirpes.

If the owners die close together

Two joint tenants raise a question a sole owner never does. Under K.S.A. 58-711, where it is not established by clear and convincing evidence that one of two co-owners with right of survivorship outlived the other by 120 hours, one half of the property passes as if each had survived, subject to the exceptions in K.S.A. 58-713. The deed itself carries no survival language.

How this form is set up

The deed recites exactly two record owners, each unmarried, holding as joint tenants with right of survivorship and signing in their own capacity, with one or more natural persons as grantee beneficiaries and an optional alternative. Two unmarried partners who bought a home together as joint tenants, and two siblings holding inherited farmland in joint tenancy, present the pattern this deed recites. Tenants in common, a married owner, an owner acting through a power of attorney, a trustee, and three or more owners on one instrument are configurations this deed is not set up as; the configuration is printed, not chosen.

Recording while both owners live

K.S.A. 59-3502 makes recording before the owner's death part of titling the interest in transfer-on-death form, so the deed is recorded with the register of deeds of the county where the land lies while both owners are living. Kansas charges no transfer tax, the register collects K.S.A. 28-115 fees by the page, and Department of Revenue Directive #19-041 tells registers that a transfer on death deed needs no sales validation questionnaire.

The package contains the fillable deed with a non-recorded instructions cover page, a completed example for two Topeka owners holding a Shawnee County lot, and a guide covering each section, the joint tenancy and simultaneous death rules, acknowledgment, and recording. This description and the guide describe the form and the governing Kansas statutes in general terms; they are not legal advice.