How to Fill Out and Record an Oregon Transfer on Death Deed

An Oregon Transfer on Death Deed lets you name someone to receive your real property when you die, without sending your family through probate. To make one, you complete the statutory form found at ORS 93.975, sign it in front of a notary, and record it with the county clerk in the county where the property sits — all before your death. The deed is governed by ORS 93.948 through 93.979.¹ You keep full ownership and control of the property for the rest of your life; the beneficiary gets nothing until you’re gone.

What You Need Before You Start

The legal capacity to sign is the same as the capacity to make a will: you must be at least 18 and of sound mind. A deed procured through fraud, duress, or undue influence is void, and anyone challenging capacity or alleging coercion has 18 months after your death to bring a court proceeding.²

Before sitting down with the form, pull these together:

Your current deed, so you can copy your legal name exactly as it appears there. Small discrepancies between documents can create title problems later.
The formal legal description of the property. A street address isn’t enough — you need the description with township, range, and section numbers, or lot and block references from a recorded plat. Copy it directly from your existing deed. If you no longer have that deed, the county assessor’s office or the county clerk’s online records can get you a copy.
The full legal name and mailing address of each beneficiary. Oregon law requires you to identify beneficiaries by name. A class designation like “my children” or “my grandchildren” is void.¹
A government-issued photo ID for the notary appointment.

Filling Out the Statutory Form

Oregon publishes an optional fill-in-the-blank form at ORS 93.975 designed for exactly this purpose.³ You aren’t required to use it, but any transfer on death deed must contain the essential elements of a recordable deed and explicitly state that the transfer takes effect at the owner’s death.¹ The statutory form hits every requirement, so it’s the safest choice if you’re doing this without an attorney.

Work through the form in order:

Tax statement address. The mailing address where the county should send property tax statements. Usually your own address while you’re alive.
Owner or owners making the deed. Print your full legal name and mailing address. If two or more people co-own the property and all want to participate, each owner’s name and address goes here.
Legal description. Copy it in full from the existing deed. Don’t paraphrase or abbreviate. If it runs long, you can attach it as an exhibit referenced in this section.
Primary beneficiary. Full legal name and mailing address of the person who will receive the property. List each one with their address if you’re naming more than one.
Alternate beneficiary (optional). A backup who takes if the primary dies before you. Without an alternate, a primary beneficiary’s interest simply lapses if that person predeceases you.⁴
Special terms (optional). A blank section for any additional conditions. Most people leave it alone.
Return address. Where the county clerk should mail the recorded deed after processing.

Don’t sign yet. Signing has to happen in front of a notary.

Signing and Notarizing

Every Transfer on Death Deed must be acknowledged before a notary public. You sign in the notary’s presence, the notary verifies your ID, confirms you’re signing voluntarily, and completes the acknowledgment block at the bottom of the form with their signature and seal. Bring the unsigned form and a valid photo ID. If multiple owners are making the deed, each owner signs and has their signature notarized. Signatures must be original; photocopies won’t be accepted for recording.

Oregon caps notary fees at $10 per notarial act for in-person notarizations and $25 for remote online notarizations.⁵ Banks, shipping stores, and law offices commonly provide notary services, and some county clerk offices have a notary on hand.

Recording With the County Clerk

This step isn’t optional. A Transfer on Death Deed that isn’t recorded before you die is completely void.¹ File the original notarized deed with the county clerk in the county where the property is located. Most counties accept in-person delivery, mail, and, in some cases, submissions through an electronic recording vendor.

Recording fees follow a statewide structure. The base is $5 per page under ORS 205.320, and ORS 205.323 adds mandatory surcharges for instruments affecting title, which pushes the first-page cost substantially higher.⁶ Multnomah County, for example, charges $86 for the first page and $5 for each additional page.⁷ Most Transfer on Death Deeds run one to three pages, so the recording cost there lands somewhere between $86 and $96. Other counties operate under the same framework with slightly different totals. Call your county clerk or check the website for the exact amount before mailing a check.

If you’re mailing it in, include the original notarized deed, a check payable to the county clerk for the exact fee, and a self-addressed return envelope if the county asks for one. Once the clerk processes the filing, the deed receives a timestamp and an instrument number, and the original comes back to the return address you wrote on the form.

Naming More Than One Beneficiary

You can list more than one primary beneficiary on the same deed. Under Oregon law, multiple beneficiaries take as tenants in common in equal, undivided shares with no right of survivorship.⁴ Name three children and each inherits a one-third interest. If one dies before you, that share does not pass to the other two automatically; it’s redistributed proportionally among the surviving beneficiaries.

For a different arrangement — unequal shares, or joint tenancy with survivorship between the beneficiaries — you’d need to spell it out in the deed’s special-terms section. Naming an alternate beneficiary is smart insurance. If your sole primary beneficiary predeceases you and there’s no alternate, the deed accomplishes nothing and the property passes through your will or intestate succession instead.

What the Deed Does While You’re Alive

While you’re living, a recorded Transfer on Death Deed has no practical effect on your property rights. It transfers no ownership, creates no interest for the beneficiary, and doesn’t restrict your ability to sell, mortgage, or refinance.⁸ It doesn’t affect your eligibility for public assistance or Medicaid during your lifetime, and it doesn’t expose the property to claims from the beneficiary’s creditors.

The beneficiary doesn’t have to know about the deed, sign anything, or accept it for it to be valid.⁹ That said, telling them the deed exists and where it’s recorded avoids confusion later.

Changing or Revoking the Deed

You can revoke a Transfer on Death Deed at any time while you’re alive, for any reason, without the beneficiary’s knowledge or consent. Oregon recognizes three ways to do it:¹⁰

Record an instrument of revocation. Prepare and notarize a document that expressly revokes the earlier deed, then record it with the county clerk before you die.
Record a new Transfer on Death Deed. A later deed naming a different beneficiary overrides the earlier one to the extent they conflict. The most recently recorded deed controls.
Transfer the property during your lifetime. Selling or deeding the property through a normal conveyance revokes the Transfer on Death Deed for whatever interest you conveyed.

Every revocation must be notarized and recorded with the county clerk before your death. Tearing up your copy of the original deed does nothing, because the county still has the recorded version in its public records. A will that contradicts the deed is also ineffective at overriding it; the statute limits revocation to the three methods above.

One automatic revocation to know about: if you divorce or have your marriage annulled after recording the deed, Oregon law automatically revokes any provisions in favor of your former spouse. The deed is then treated as if your ex-spouse did not survive you, so an alternate beneficiary would inherit — or the deed lapses if no alternate was named.¹¹

What Happens After You Die

When the owner dies, the property automatically belongs to the surviving named beneficiary. The transfer happens by operation of law, with no probate proceeding required. The beneficiary still needs to update the public land records, though. The standard approach is to record an affidavit of survivorship along with a certified copy of the death certificate at the county clerk’s office where the property sits. That creates a clean chain of title so the beneficiary can sell, refinance, or insure the property down the road.

The beneficiary receives the property without any warranty of title, regardless of what the deed says.⁴ Whatever condition the title is in at the owner’s death — existing mortgages, liens, easements — comes along with it. Title insurance companies sometimes delay issuing a policy until potential creditor claims are resolved.

If the beneficiary doesn’t want the property, Oregon law lets them disclaim all or part of their interest under ORS 105.623. That can make sense where the property carries more debt than it’s worth.

Debts, Medicaid Recovery, and the Mortgage

A Transfer on Death Deed doesn’t shield property from the deceased owner’s creditors. The beneficiary takes it subject to every mortgage, lien, contract, and encumbrance that existed at the owner’s death.⁴ If the probate estate lacks assets to pay outstanding debts, creditors can pursue the transferred property directly.

Oregon’s Medicaid estate recovery program is worth flagging. Under ORS 416.350, the state can seek reimbursement for long-term care costs from property that passed outside of probate, including through a Transfer on Death Deed, if the probate estate can’t cover the bill.⁴ If the owner received Medicaid-funded nursing home care or other long-term services, the beneficiary should expect a potential state claim against the property. It’s one of the most commonly overlooked consequences of using this deed as an estate planning shortcut.

Existing mortgages don’t disappear either. The beneficiary inherits the balance. Federal law does prevent lenders from calling the loan due just because the borrower died and the property transferred to a relative: the Garn-St. Germain Act specifically exempts transfers resulting from the death of a borrower from due-on-sale acceleration clauses.¹² The beneficiary will still need to keep making payments or refinance into their own name, but the lender can’t demand immediate full repayment simply because ownership changed hands at death.

Tax Basis for the Beneficiary

Property that passes through a Transfer on Death Deed qualifies for a stepped-up tax basis under federal law. Section 1014 of the Internal Revenue Code sets the beneficiary’s basis at the property’s fair market value on the date of the owner’s death, not what the owner originally paid.¹³ Inherit a house your parent bought for $120,000 thirty years ago that’s worth $450,000 at death, and your basis is $450,000. Sell shortly afterward for roughly that amount and you’d owe little or no capital gains tax.

For 2026, the federal estate tax exemption is $15,000,000 per individual.¹⁴ Estates below that threshold owe no federal estate tax, so most homeowners using a Transfer on Death Deed won’t trigger any federal estate tax liability. Oregon does have its own estate tax with a lower threshold, and beneficiaries of larger estates should check with a tax professional about state-level obligations.

To lock in the stepped-up basis, document the property’s fair market value as of the date of death. A professional residential appraisal, which typically runs from a few hundred dollars up to around $1,500 depending on the property, provides the strongest evidence if the IRS or a future buyer questions the basis.

When the Property Has Joint Owners

If the property is held in joint tenancy and one co-owner dies, the surviving joint owner inherits by right of survivorship, and the Transfer on Death Deed doesn’t kick in yet. The deed only takes effect when the last surviving joint owner dies.⁴ Married couples who hold property as joint tenants with right of survivorship should keep this in mind: the deed is really a backup plan that activates only after both spouses have passed. If co-owners hold as tenants in common instead, each can record their own Transfer on Death Deed for their individual share, and each deed operates independently.

1
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 93.961 – URPTDA 9. Requirements
2
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 93.959 – URPTDA 8. Capacity of Transferor; Fraud, Duress or Undue Influence
3
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 93.975 – URPTDA 16. Form of Transfer on Death Deed
4
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 93.969 – URPTDA 13. Effect of Transfer on Death Deed at Transferor’s Death
5
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 194.400 – Fees for Notarial Acts; Collection of Fees
6
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Revised Statutes Chapter 205 – County Clerks
7
Multnomah County. Recording Fees
8
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 93.967 – URPTDA 12. Effect of Transfer on Death Deed During Transferor’s Life
9
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 93.963 – URPTDA 10. Notice; Delivery; Acceptance
10
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 93.965 – URPTDA 11. Revocation by Instrument; Revocation by Act
11
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 93.981 – Effect of Divorce or Annulment on Transfer on Death Deed
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 12 U.S. Code 1701j-3 – Preemption of Due-on-Sale Prohibitions
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 1014 – Basis of Property Acquired From a Decedent
14
Internal Revenue Service. Estate Tax