Oregon Transfer on Death Deed: Requirements, Costs, and Revocation

An Oregon transfer on death deed lets you name someone to receive your real estate automatically when you die, without probate, as long as the deed is written correctly, notarized, and recorded with the county before your death. The rules sit in ORS 93.948 through 93.979, and missing any one of them can void the whole transfer.¹ Get the details right and the property moves to your beneficiary the moment you die. Get one wrong and it lands in probate anyway.

The Four Requirements for a Valid Deed

Under ORS 93.961, a transfer on death deed (TODD) is unenforceable unless it meets every one of these conditions:¹

It’s in writing and contains the essential elements of a recordable deed, including the legal description of the property and the identities of the grantor and beneficiary.
It states clearly that the transfer takes effect at the grantor’s death. Oregon offers an optional statutory form in ORS 93.975 using language like “transfers on death to,” but any wording that conveys the same intent works.
The grantor signs it and has the signature acknowledged before a notary public. The beneficiary does not sign, does not have to accept it, and does not even have to know it exists.¹
It’s recorded with the county clerk in the county where the property sits before the grantor dies. An unrecorded TODD has no legal effect.¹

Recording is where TODDs most often fail. A signed and notarized deed sitting in a desk drawer when the grantor dies does nothing. The property passes under the grantor’s will or Oregon’s intestacy rules instead, which means probate.

One point worth being clear about: the beneficiary gets no ownership interest while you’re alive. You keep full control of the property. You can sell it, mortgage it, live in it, rent it, or revoke the deed entirely. The beneficiary’s interest only comes into existence at the moment of your death.

Who Can Sign and What Property Qualifies

The grantor must own the property at the time of signing and have the mental capacity Oregon requires for making a will, which means being at least 18 (or lawfully married or emancipated) and of sound mind.² Sole owners, joint tenants, and tenants in common all qualify. Oregon’s statute doesn’t explicitly say whether an agent under a power of attorney can sign a TODD for the property owner, so an agent generally shouldn’t attempt it unless the POA document specifically grants that authority.

The beneficiary can be almost anyone: an individual, several people, a trust, a nonprofit, a business, or a government body.² Family relationship is not required. You can also name one or more alternate beneficiaries who inherit only if all primary beneficiaries die before you do. Naming an alternate is the single most useful step for keeping the deed out of probate later.

If the beneficiary is a minor when the grantor dies, the child can’t hold real estate directly. Naming a custodian under Oregon’s Uniform Transfers to Minors Act, or using a living trust instead, avoids that problem.

What Property the Deed Covers

Only real property located in Oregon. That includes fee simple interests, life estates, and fractional shares held by tenants in common.² Homes, commercial buildings, farmland, and vacant lots all qualify. Unlike California, Oregon does not limit TODDs to residential property.

A TODD cannot transfer personal property, bank accounts, vehicles, or investment accounts. Those need separate beneficiary designations or other tools. The deed also has no effect on joint tenancy property while a co-owner survives, because the right of survivorship comes first. A TODD signed by a joint tenant only takes effect if that person is the last surviving joint owner.³

Property with a mortgage, tax lien, or other encumbrance can still be transferred, but those obligations follow the property. The beneficiary inherits the debt along with the deed.³

What It Costs

Oregon caps notary fees at $10 per notarial act for in-person acknowledgments and $25 for remote online notarizations.⁴ County recording fees vary. Deschutes County charges $97 for the first page and $5 for each additional page.⁵ Other counties are in the same range. Even with an attorney drafting the deed, the total is well under what probate would cost.

Changing or Revoking a Deed

A TODD is always revocable. Oregon’s statute is absolute on this: even if the deed itself or another document says otherwise, the grantor can revoke it any time before death.² There are three ways to do it:

Record a new TODD that expressly revokes the earlier one or is inconsistent with it. This is also how you change beneficiaries.
Record a separate instrument of revocation, acknowledged by the grantor, in the same county as the original deed.
Transfer the property during your lifetime by recording a regular deed. That revokes the TODD to the extent of the property transferred.²

What does not work: tearing up the original, writing a conflicting will, or telling someone you’ve changed your mind. Revocation has to be a recorded document, acknowledged by the grantor, filed before death. The beneficiary’s consent is never required.

Divorce Automatically Revokes the Deed

A final divorce or annulment automatically revokes a TODD naming the former spouse as beneficiary. The property is treated as if the former spouse died before the grantor.³ Any named alternate takes the property; if there’s no alternate, the TODD lapses. Recording a fresh revocation or new TODD after divorce is still the safer move because it removes any ambiguity in the public record.

What Happens When You Die

At the grantor’s death, the property automatically belongs to the named beneficiary. No court approval, no probate.² But the county records still show the deceased grantor as owner until the beneficiary updates them.

The beneficiary typically records a Notice of Death Affidavit along with a certified copy of the death certificate in the county where the property is located. The affidavit identifies the beneficiary, gives the legal description, and states the date of death. Without this filing, selling, refinancing, or insuring the property runs into title problems.

The property transfers without any warranty of title. The beneficiary takes whatever interest the grantor actually had at death, with no guarantee the title is clean.³ A title search before selling or refinancing is worth the cost.

If the Beneficiary Dies First

If the sole named beneficiary dies before the grantor and there’s no alternate, the TODD lapses. The property passes through the will or through intestacy, meaning probate.³ This is the most common way a TODD fails, and naming alternate beneficiaries prevents it.

When multiple primary beneficiaries are named for concurrent interests, they get equal, undivided shares with no right of survivorship by default. If one dies before the grantor, that share doesn’t disappear. It passes proportionally to the surviving beneficiaries.³

What the Deed Does Not Protect Against

Creditors

A TODD doesn’t put property out of reach of creditors. Under ORS 93.973, if the probate estate can’t cover allowed claims, the estate can enforce those claims against the TODD property. The beneficiary takes the property subject to every mortgage, lien, contract, and encumbrance that existed at the grantor’s death.³ Secured debts stay attached to the property regardless of the rest of the estate. Unsecured debts like credit card balances can also reach TODD property when the probate estate falls short.

Medicaid Estate Recovery

Oregon’s Medicaid estate recovery program can file a claim against TODD property when the probate estate isn’t enough to repay the state for benefits. ORS 93.969 specifically lists claims by a state seeking reimbursement for medical assistance among the interests the beneficiary takes subject to.³ The Oregon Department of Human Services notes that a decedent’s home is typically part of the estate subject to recovery, and families can sometimes choose to pay the state’s claim rather than sell the property, occasionally by taking out a mortgage to cover the amount owed.⁶

A common misconception is that a TODD shields real estate from Medicaid recovery because it avoids probate. The statute closes that loophole directly. Separately, creating a TODD does not count as a transfer of assets for Medicaid eligibility, because the property doesn’t actually change hands until the grantor dies. Signing a TODD does not trigger Medicaid’s five-year look-back.

Oregon Estate Tax

A TODD does not remove property from your taxable estate. Because you keep full control and the right to revoke, the property stays in your gross estate for federal and Oregon estate tax purposes.⁷ Oregon’s estate tax exemption is $1,000,000, with rates climbing to 16% for the largest estates. Homeowners in the Portland metro area or along the coast can easily bump against that threshold when the house is the main asset. A TODD does nothing to reduce that exposure.

A TODD Versus a Will or Trust

A TODD is nontestamentary, which means it operates independently of your will.² If your will leaves the house to one person and a recorded TODD names someone else, the TODD wins. Uncoordinated plans are the source of most TODD disputes.

A revocable living trust can do everything a TODD does and more, holding real property alongside other assets, allowing staggered distributions, and letting a successor trustee manage things if you become incapacitated. A trust costs more upfront and requires retitling assets during your lifetime. If your property is already in a trust, a TODD signed by you as an individual has no effect, because the trust holds title.

Where a TODD works best is simplicity: one Oregon property, one intended recipient, under $200 in fees, no probate afterward. For anything more complex, treat the TODD as one piece of a broader plan rather than the whole plan.

Grounds for Challenge

A TODD can be contested on the same grounds as a will:

Lack of capacity, meaning the grantor didn’t understand what they were signing because of dementia, cognitive decline, severe mental illness, or intoxication.
Undue influence, where someone in a position of trust pressured the grantor into signing against their independent wishes.
Fraud, where the grantor was deceived about what the document was or what it would do.
Forgery of the grantor’s signature.

Undue influence claims often come up when the beneficiary had a close relationship with an elderly or vulnerable grantor and other family members were left out. Oregon courts look at whether the alleged influencer had a confidential relationship with the grantor, whether the grantor was isolated from other advisors or family, and whether the transfer matched the grantor’s earlier expressed wishes. If the TODD was signed during documented cognitive decline, the burden of proving validity can shift to whoever is defending the deed. In circumstances where a challenge is foreseeable, an independent legal opinion and a record of the decision-making process are worth the effort.

1
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Revised Statute – UNIFORM REAL PROPERTY TRANSFER ON DEATH ACT
2
Oregon State Legislature. Chapter 0212 Oregon Laws 2011
3
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Revised Statutes Property Rights and Transactions 93-969
4
Oregon Laws. OAR 160-100-0400 – Maximum Amount of Notary Fees Permitted
5
Deschutes County Oregon. Recording Fees
6
Oregon Department of Human Services. Estate Recovery – Financial Recovery
7
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 706 (Rev. September 2025)