Smith County Affidavit of Death of Life Tenant (Enhanced Life Estate Deed) Form

A Texas enhanced life estate deed, better known as a lady bird deed, does its work silently. The owner who signed it keeps full control for life, and at the moment of death the property vests in the remainder beneficiary named in the deed, with no probate and no new conveyance. The county records, however, learn nothing from the death itself: they still show a deed waiting to operate and a life tenant who, as far as the index reveals, is alive. This affidavit is how the record catches up.

A Deed the Statutes Never Wrote Down

Unlike the transfer on death deed, which the legislature codified in Estates Code Chapter 114, the lady bird deed rests on common law and decades of Texas title practice; when Chapter 114 was adopted, its nonexclusivity provision (Section 114.004) expressly left the older common-law transfer methods intact. That heritage shapes the paperwork at death. There is no statutory affidavit, no official form, and no statutory checklist. What title practice expects instead is a sworn, recorded affidavit that connects the recorded deed to the death certificate and states what the records themselves cannot: that the life tenant died, and that the powers the deed reserved, to sell, mortgage, or revoke, were never exercised in a way that divested the remainder.

What the Sworn Statements Establish

The affidavit identifies the deceased life tenant, the date of death, and the recorded enhanced life estate deed by its date, document number, and recording county, then sets out the sworn substance: the affiant is a remainder beneficiary named in the deed; the deed reserved an enhanced life estate with its characteristic powers; the life estate terminated at death; no recorded instrument shows a conveyance or revocation divesting the remainder; and title vested in the remainder beneficiaries the deed names, subject to matters of record. A certified copy of the death certificate accompanies the affidavit, and the two together give a later title examiner, in one place, the death, the deed, and the vesting.

Sworn With a Jurat, Then Recorded

Because the affidavit asserts facts under oath rather than conveying anything, the affiant signs before a notary who completes a jurat, and the instrument becomes recordable under Property Code Section 12.001(a), which admits to record an instrument concerning real property sworn to with a proper jurat. It is recorded with the county clerk of the county where the property is located, in the same deed records that hold the enhanced life estate deed itself. The confidentiality notice that appears atop Texas conveyances is absent by design: the affidavit transfers no interest, so the notice statute does not reach it.

The Complete Package

The download includes the affidavit as a fillable PDF, a completed example showing every entry for a realistic Williamson County fact pattern, and a plain language guide covering each numbered section, the jurat, and the recording steps, including the photo identification now required at Texas recording counters for in-person filings. The materials are informational and are not legal advice; a Texas attorney can address how a particular deed and death play out on a specific title.