Maryland homeowners can now pass a house outside probate with a transfer-on-death deed.

Maryland's TOD deed law took effect October 1

The Maryland Transfer-on-Death Deed Act took effect October 1, 2026. Governor Wes Moore approved it on May 26, 2026.

The legislation was enacted as Chapter 750 of the 2026 Laws of Maryland, based on Senate Bill 651, and as Chapter 751, based on cross-file House Bill 738. HB 738 passed the House on third reading 129-0, the Senate on third reading 42-0, and the House on final passage 133-0.

The Act creates Subtitle 10 of Title 14 of the Real Property Article, sections 14-1001 through 14-1014. Related amendments appear in the Estates and Trusts Article, including new section 1-402, the Maryland Uniform Disclaimer of Property Interests Act, and the Tax-Property Article. Real Property section 3-104, which concerns recording prerequisites, also changed.

The Department of Legislative Services described SB 651 as a modified version of the Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act drafted by the Uniform Law Commission. Similar proposals appeared in HB 625 of 2025 and SB 146 and HB 986 of 2023.

Before publishing, the Archivar editorial desk read the 32-page enacted chapter line by line. The enacted text shows that the drafters struck earlier wording referring to "life estate deeds with powers" and replaced it with transfer-on-death deed language. The Act does not eliminate other Maryland transfer methods, including life estate deeds with powers.

Recording before death controls effectiveness

A Maryland owner may use a TOD deed to transfer real property to one or more beneficiaries at the owner's death. The deed must meet the ordinary requirements for a deed under Real Property section 4-101 and must state that the transfer occurs at the transferor's death.

The deed is effective only if it is recorded in the land records of the county where the property is located before the transferor dies. An unrecorded TOD deed found after death does not transfer the property under the Act.

The beneficiary does not need to receive notice of the deed, accept it, or receive delivery during the owner's life. No consideration is required. The capacity to make or revoke a TOD deed is the same capacity required to make a will.

A deed may name multiple beneficiaries and specify any form of tenancy. If it does not specify a form, the beneficiaries take as joint tenants with rights of survivorship.

The statute includes a form TOD deed, a form instrument of revocation, informational common-questions documents, and a form notice of death. The statutory form states that the deed must be notarized and recorded before death. It also warns that the notary cannot be a relative of any beneficiary or owner.

The owner keeps control during life

A TOD deed does not give the beneficiary a present ownership interest. During the owner's life, the deed does not affect the owner's right to sell or mortgage the property.

It also does not affect a buyer or other transferee, even if that person knows about the TOD deed. The deed does not affect the owner's secured or unsecured creditors, even if they have notice. It does not affect the owner's or beneficiary's eligibility for public assistance, and it does not expose the property to claims by the beneficiary's creditors.

A lifetime sale or other transfer remains effective. The Act also does not limit civil actions for damages or other remedies available under other law.

The Estates and Trusts Article states that a TOD deed made under the subtitle is effective under that subtitle and that a transfer under it is not testamentary. Real Property section 14-1004 likewise describes the deed as nontestamentary and revocable, even if the deed or another instrument says otherwise.

A will cannot revoke a recorded TOD deed

Revocation requires another recorded instrument. Before the transferor's death, the county land records must contain an executed and acknowledged later TOD deed that revokes the earlier deed expressly or by inconsistency, an instrument of revocation, or an inter vivos deed that revokes the TOD deed expressly or by inconsistency.

After recording, tearing up or otherwise revoking the deed by an act on the document does not work. A will or other testamentary document signed after the TOD deed also cannot revoke it.

If there is more than one transferor, one transferor's revocation affects only that person's interest. A TOD deed by joint owners is revoked only if all living joint owners revoke it. The statute separately preserves the effect of a lifetime sale or transfer.

That makes the land records part of an estate plan review. A will can dispose of probate assets, but it cannot undo a recorded TOD deed.

The beneficiary takes the property with its burdens

At death, the property passes to a designated beneficiary who survives the transferor. The interest of a beneficiary who does not survive lapses. If the deed names an alternate, or successive alternates, the property passes to a surviving alternate instead.

The transfer remains subject to specified Maryland rules. The list includes the pretermitted child statutory share, a surviving spouse's elective share, revocation following a later marriage and child or a divorce, the lapse statute, the slayer disqualification, and the simultaneous death statute.

A joint owner requires separate analysis. If the transferor is a joint tenant or tenant by the entirety and another joint owner survives, the property belongs to the surviving joint owner. The TOD deed operates on the death of the last surviving joint owner. A tenant in common is not a joint owner for this purpose.

The beneficiary takes subject to conveyances, encumbrances, mortgages, liens and other security agreements existing at death. The deed transfers the property without a covenant or warranty of title, even if the deed contains language to the contrary. Those provisions affect title work and lender payoff after death.

A beneficiary may disclaim under the Maryland Uniform Disclaimer of Property Interests Act. Under the amendments, a disclaimer of an interest in real property made after the beneficiary designation becomes irrevocable must be recorded in the county land records where the property is located.

A beneficiary may record a notice of the transferor's death, but the notice is not required for the transfer. The transfer is deemed to occur at death. The clerk forwards a recorded notice to the State Department of Assessments and Taxation, and assessment records move to the beneficiary only after death.

Tax treatment depends on the property

A TOD deed is exempt from recordation tax and State and county transfer tax when the property is the transferor's primary residence or secondary residence. The exemption does not extend under these provisions to rental or investment property.

Property passing by TOD deed leaves the probate estate, so probate fees do not apply to that property. Maryland inheritance tax can still apply if the beneficiary is a taxable individual.

The Act applies to a TOD deed made before, on, or after October 1, 2026, if the transferor dies on or after that date. That retroactivity provision makes older deeds part of the review.

The Act also directs courts, where practicable and consistent with uniform application of the Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act, to interpret and enforce it according to existing Maryland law governing life estates with powers of alienation.

Recorded deeds add a file-management issue

Estate plans now include a statutory, revocable, recorded nonprobate option for Maryland real estate alongside life estate deeds with powers, trusts and joint ownership. The statutory form is directed at simple situations. Its own notice says consultation with a lawyer is strongly advised if not all current owners are signing, the owner's name changed after acquisition, or the owner wants to name multiple future owners.

The timing problem is specific: a deed not recorded before death is ineffective under the Act. A will review that does not include the county land records can miss a controlling transfer. A title review also must account for liens, mortgages, joint ownership, disclaimers and the absence of a title warranty.

Archivar, which publishes The Docket, is an operating system for law firms that answers every call 24/7 in English and Spanish, runs intake, manages matters and remembers everything the firm does. Because the same client's TOD deed, will and later changes may be months or years apart, the firm's record of what was signed and recorded is what lets someone find it later.

Plan reviews therefore account for both testamentary documents and recorded land instruments. Deeds drafted before October 1, 2026 may fall under the Act if the transferor dies on or after that date. The same October 1 batch of Maryland laws also produced the change keeping a fiduciary's privilege intact when the estate pays the lawyer.

Recordation before death determines whether the TOD deed works.

A later will does not revoke a recorded TOD deed.

The beneficiary receives the property with its existing liens and without a title warranty.