Dorchester County Transfer on Death Deed (Individual) Form

Section 14-1001(f) of the Maryland Real Property Article defines a transferor as an individual who makes a transfer on death deed, and this form is that definition at its simplest: one individual who owns Maryland real property alone, signing once to say who receives it at death. Prepared under the Maryland Transfer-on-Death Deed Act, Title 14, Subtitle 10 of the Real Property Article, in force since October 1, 2026, it fixes three facts about the owner and nothing else: a natural person, the sole owner of the described property, acting in that person's own capacity.

One owner, one interest, one sentence

The Maryland TOD deed, also searched as a beneficiary deed, transfers the interest the owner holds at death and nothing sooner. Under Section 14-1007 the recorded deed affects no right of the owner during life, including the right to sell or mortgage, and creates no interest in favor of the beneficiary. The transfer happens in the words of the Section 14-1011 form, carried verbatim in Section 5 of the deed: at my death, I transfer my interest in the described property to the beneficiaries as designated above. For a sole owner that sentence has one subject and one death to wait for.

Why marital status stays out of the recital

The Section 1 recital identifies an individual, the sole owner of the property, signing in the owner's own capacity, and says nothing about marriage. Maryland has no community property regime, and Estates and Trusts Section 3-202 abolished dower and curtesy, so a spouse who holds no record title is not a transferor and has no signature line; the owner on this form may be married, unmarried, widowed, or divorced without changing a word of the deed. Marriage reaches the transfer at death instead: Section 14-1009(a)(1) subjects it to the surviving spouse's elective share and to the Estates and Trusts rules on revocation by divorce and by a later marriage followed by a child.

Beneficiaries the owner may name

Section 3 carries the statutory designation sentence and receives one or more primary beneficiaries, each a person as Section 1-101 defines the term: a natural person, a trust through its trustee, or an entity by its registered name. Section 14-1003(b) lets a deed naming more than one state the tenancy in which they take, and otherwise conveys title to them as joint tenants with rights of survivorship, a default printed in the form's own note. Section 4, optional, carries the statutory alternate sentence for a beneficiary who takes only if no primary beneficiary survives.

What this configuration recites

The form recites exactly one record owner and carries one signature block with the (SEAL) notation of the statutory form, one acknowledgment certificate in the State Government Section 18-216(b) short form with a reserved stamp area, and the party certification of preparation that Section 3-104(f) makes a condition of recording. After that certification comes the Certification of Occupancy Status from the deed form published by Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service, which Maryland clerks and county finance offices read to apply the Tax-Property Section 12-108(ii), 13-207(a)(27), and 13-414 exemption for a primary or secondary residence of the transferor, and a tax-status line under the title naming the Act, the absence of consideration, and the Section 3-104(a)(1)(ii) carve-out from the tax collector's certificate. It is not set up as a deed by two owners on one instrument, by a co-owner holding an undivided fraction, by spouses holding as tenants by the entirety, or by a trustee, an entity, a personal representative, or an attorney-in-fact. A vesting deed showing one name alone presents the pattern this deed recites.

Recording while the owner is living

Section 14-1006 makes recording, before the owner's death, in the land records of the county or Baltimore City where the property lies the condition of the deed's effect, and the enacted notice saying so is printed at the deed's head. The Land Instrument Intake Sheet travels with it as a separate form, since Section 3-104(g)(6)(ii) lets the clerk refuse a TOD deed presented without one. The recording fee and land records surcharge apply; the recordation and transfer taxes do not reach a deed of the owner's primary or secondary residence.

The package includes the fillable transfer on death deed as a PDF, a completed example filled in for a Cecil County owner naming two beneficiaries and an alternate, and a plain-language guide covering each section, signing, and recording. The materials are informational and are not legal advice.