Howard County Transfer on Death Deed (Married Owners, Tenants by the Entirety) Form

Maryland spouses who hold their home as tenants by the entirety already own it with survivorship between them, and since October 1, 2026 they can also name, in one recorded deed signed by both, who takes the property after both of them are gone. This form prepares that Maryland transfer on death deed, also searched as a beneficiary deed or TOD deed, under Real Property Article, Title 14, Subtitle 10, for two owners married to each other and holding title as tenants by the entirety.

An estate the spouses hold together

Tenancy by the entirety is the co-ownership Maryland reserves to married couples: each spouse holds the whole with the other, and neither alone can convey, encumber, or sever it. The Act folds that estate into its joint owner rules: Section 14-1001(d) names a tenant by the entirety as a joint owner, and Section 14-1009(d) provides that when a joint owner dies survived by another joint owner, the property belongs to the survivor with right of survivorship, and that the deed becomes effective on the death of the last surviving joint owner. The deed recites that sequence in its operative paragraph: survivorship first, the designation second.

Two signatures, two certificates, one revocation rule

Each spouse is a transferor, so both sign, and the form carries a signature block and an acknowledgment certificate for each, so the acknowledgments may be taken on different days or before different officers. The same two-person logic governs revocation. Under Section 14-1008(c), a transfer-on-death deed made by joint owners is revoked only if every living joint owner revokes it, so while both spouses are living neither can undo the recorded designation alone; after the first death the surviving spouse holds that power alone. A revocation is a separate instrument, executed, acknowledged, and recorded before death, prepared separately and not included in this package; a will cannot revoke the deed.

What this configuration recites

The form recites exactly two record owners, married to each other and holding as tenants by the entirety, as fixed deed text above the owners' names and mailing addresses, and asks for the recording reference of the deed that vested title in them. A sole owner, two people not married to each other, a pair whose vesting deed carries express joint tenancy words, and a married owner whose spouse is not on the title each present a different title pattern that this deed is not set up as; it also provides no signature through an attorney-in-fact and no room for a third owner. The patterns that present it in the record are a couple who bought during the marriage with a deed naming them as husband and wife or as tenants by the entirety, and a spouse who later added the other to title by a direct grant of an entireties estate under Section 4-108.

Beneficiaries are named by full legal name with a mailing address if available; a trust is named through its trustee and an entity by its registered name. Where more than one beneficiary is named and the deed indicates no form of tenancy, Section 14-1003(b) passes title to them as joint tenants with rights of survivorship at the death of the last surviving owner, and the form prints that default. An optional alternate section names who takes if no primary beneficiary survives. The deed transfers without covenant or warranty of title, subject to every mortgage and lien on the property at the second death.

Recording while both are living

Under Section 14-1006 the deed is effective only if it is recorded, before the transferor's death, in the land records of the county or Baltimore City where the property lies. A deed recorded while both spouses are living settles the condition for both, and the form states it in bold capitals. The Act exempts a deed of the transferor's primary or secondary residence from recordation tax and from State and county transfer tax; recording fees still apply, and the clerk may refuse a transfer-on-death deed that arrives without a Land Instrument Intake Sheet, so the intake sheet travels with the deed as a separate form. The deed also carries the certification of preparation that Section 3-104(f) makes a condition of recording, with its two statutory alternatives.

The package contains the fillable deed, a completed Baltimore County example for two spouses naming their children as beneficiaries, and a plain language guide covering each section, the entireties rules, signing, and recording. These materials are informational and are not legal advice.