Transfer on death deed in North Dakota

North Dakota at a glance

TOD deed for real estate

Yes

Name in North Dakota law

Transfer on death deed

Law

N.D.C.C. ch. 30.1-32.1 (Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act)

Notary

Required

Witnesses

None

When to record

Before the death

Where to record

County recorder of the county where the property is located

After-death document

No specific filing named in the law

Notice to heirs

Not required

Official form

No state form

Your checklist

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Making a valid TOD deed in North Dakota

• What the law does. An individual can transfer North Dakota real property to beneficiaries effective at death by a transfer on death deed recorded before death.
• Signing. The owner signs; the deed must have the essential elements and formalities of a recordable deed (acknowledgment). The statute requires no witnesses. Title must use 'transfer on death deed' or 'TOD', and it must state the transfer occurs at death. Capacity is the same as for a will.
• Recording. Must be recorded with the county recorder before the owner's death; no deadline counted from signing. No auditor's certificate of transfer or statement of full consideration is needed to record it.
• Payment, delivery, acceptance. Effective without notice, delivery, acceptance, or consideration.
• Form. No statutory form in chapter 30.1-32.1.

Changing it, and who you can name

• Revoking or changing. Revoke with a later TOD deed, a revocation instrument, or an inter vivos deed expressly revoking it, acknowledged after the original and recorded with the county recorder before death. Not by an act on the deed. The statute names no revocation by will.
• Beneficiaries. Any person. A beneficiary must survive the owner or the gift lapses, subject to state antilapse, divorce, homicide, survival and elective-share rules if they apply to nonprobate transfers; co-beneficiaries take equal shares without survivorship and a failed share goes to the others.

After the owner dies

• Where. County recorder (statute silent)
• Steps. Chapter 30.1-32.1 does not say what the beneficiary records after death; ask the county recorder what it needs. (N.D.C.C. § 47-19-06 lets a certified death certificate with a legal description be recorded for joint tenancy and life estates, but does not mention TOD deeds.)

Debts, Medicaid and the spouse

• Creditors and Medicaid. If the probate estate is insufficient for allowed claims or statutory allowances to a spouse or child, the estate may enforce them against TOD property, apportioned by net value, but not against a buyer or lender for value from the beneficiary. Proceedings must start within 18 months after death. Medicaid's estate claim (N.D.C.C. § 50-24.1-07) is a preferred claim against the estate.
• Surviving spouse. Elective-share law applies to the transfer if it applies to nonprobate transfers; statutory allowances can be enforced against the property if the estate is insufficient.

Good to know in North Dakota

• afterDeath.document unknown from official sources; hold for county recorder confirmation.
• Beneficiary takes subject to mortgages and liens; no warranty of title.
• Joint owners (incl. tenants by the entirety): survivor takes; deed works only if the transferor is the last surviving joint owner.

Official pages

• North Dakota statute
• No TOD deed or other plan? How North Dakota handles a small estate without probate →

Sources

• N.D.C.C. ch. 30.1-32.1 (read October 28, 2026)
• N.D.C.C. ch. 47-19 (§ 47-19-06) (read October 28, 2026)
• N.D.C.C. ch. 50-24.1 (§ 50-24.1-07) (read October 28, 2026)

Legal information from the official sources above, not legal advice. A TOD deed can affect Medicaid, taxes, creditors and co-owners; for a decision about your own property, ask the county recorder, a legal aid office or a lawyer. How we check: methodology.