Texas Transfer on Death Deed
A transfer on death deed does one specific thing: it names who gets a piece of Texas real estate the moment you die, without that property ever passing through probate. Texas authorized the tool under what the Estates Code calls the Texas Real Property Transfer on Death Act — Chapter 114, applying to any such deed executed and acknowledged on or after September 1, 2015 by a transferor who dies on or after that date — and it sits in a different spot than either a regular deed or a will. A regular deed transfers the property the day you sign and record it, while you're still alive to deal with the consequences. A will only controls property after a court admits it to probate. A transfer on death deed splits the difference: you record it now, you keep the property and everything that comes with owning it for the rest of your life, and the transfer itself doesn't happen until you die.
This page covers what the deed actually requires to be valid, how much control you give up while you're alive (short answer: none), how to change your mind later, what happens to the property the moment you die, and where the deed's protection actually stops — because avoiding probate is not the same thing as avoiding your creditors.
What a Transfer on Death Deed Does
Under Section 114.051, an individual may transfer their interest in real property to one or more beneficiaries, effective at the transferor's death, by recording a transfer on death deed. Two features set it apart from most other estate-planning documents. First, Section 114.053 makes it nontestamentary — legally, it isn't a will and isn't treated like one, which is part of why it can take effect without a probate court ever looking at it. Second, Section 114.056 means the deed is effective without notice to, delivery to, or acceptance by the beneficiary, and without any consideration changing hands — your beneficiary doesn't need to know the deed exists, sign anything, or pay you for it. The deed only has to be recorded; nothing about its effectiveness depends on the beneficiary's participation.
What It Takes to Create One
Section 114.055 sets three requirements. The deed must contain the essential elements and formalities of a recordable deed — a valid legal description of the property, a competent grantor, and the other basics any deed needs. It must state, on its face, that the transfer to the named beneficiary is to occur at the transferor's death rather than immediately. And it has to be recorded in the deed records of the county where the property is located before the transferor dies — a transfer on death deed that's signed but never recorded, or recorded only after death, does nothing. Section 114.054 sets the required capacity at the same level needed to make a contract, and it closes off one shortcut people sometimes try: a transfer on death deed cannot be created through use of a power of attorney. If you've already lost the capacity to sign a contract yourself, it's too late for someone holding your power of attorney to do this for you.
You Keep Full Control While You're Alive
Recording a transfer on death deed gives up nothing while you're alive. Section 114.101 lists what the deed does not affect during the transferor's life: your right to sell, transfer, or place a mortgage on the property; your homestead rights, if the property qualifies as your homestead; and your ad valorem tax exemptions, including the residence homestead exemption and the additional exemptions available at 65, for a disability, or for a veteran. The deed also doesn't affect the rights of anyone you later sell or mortgage the property to, even if they know the deed exists, and it doesn't touch your existing creditors' rights against the property, your or your beneficiary's eligibility for public assistance, or trigger a "due on sale" clause or any real estate notice or disclosure requirement. Section 114.101(7) means the deed creates no legal or equitable interest in the beneficiary at all while you're alive, and Section 114.101(8) means that absence of an interest keeps the property out of reach of the beneficiary's own creditors during your lifetime, too.
That full control cuts both ways. Section 114.102 says that if you sell or otherwise convey the property to someone else after recording the deed, and that new conveyance is recorded before you die, the sale wins — the transfer on death deed becomes void as to the interest you conveyed away. Naming a beneficiary doesn't lock the property in place; it only controls what happens to whatever you still own when you die.
Changing Your Mind
Section 114.052 makes the deed revocable no matter what it says about itself, and Section 114.057 gives you two ways to actually do it: record a new transfer on death deed that revokes or changes the earlier one, or record a standalone instrument of revocation — either way, the revoking document has to be acknowledged after the original deed and recorded, before your death, in the same county where the original deed is recorded. Divorce works automatically: if you divorce a beneficiary spouse and notice of that final judgment is recorded before your death, the divorce revokes the deed as to that ex-spouse without you having to do anything else. What doesn't work is Section 114.057(b)'s flat rule — a will may not revoke or supersede a transfer on death deed. Updating your will to change who gets the house does nothing to a transfer on death deed you recorded earlier; you have to revoke or replace the deed itself, in the deed records, not the probate court.
What Happens the Moment You Die
Section 114.103 sets the rules that take over at death. Your beneficiary has to survive you by 120 hours to inherit under the deed — the same 120-hour rule Texas uses for intestate succession; if the beneficiary doesn't survive that long, their share lapses and passes as though the deed were a devise in a will, under the anti-lapse rules in Chapter 255. Name more than one beneficiary and, unless the deed itself says otherwise, they take the property as tenants in common in equal, undivided shares — not with a right of survivorship between them. If you hold the property with a co-owner who has right of survivorship, the deed doesn't jump the line: the surviving co-owner takes the property outright first, and the transfer on death deed only becomes effective once the last surviving joint owner dies. However the property arrives, Section 114.103(d) is explicit that it transfers without any warranty of title, even if the deed itself says otherwise — your beneficiary takes the property as-is, title-wise.
Avoiding Probate Isn't the Same as Avoiding Debt
A transfer on death deed keeps the property out of probate, but it doesn't put the property out of reach of your creditors. Section 114.104 makes the beneficiary take the property subject to whatever liens, mortgages, and other encumbrances were already on it when you died. Section 114.106 goes further: if the rest of your estate isn't enough to cover claims against it, administration expenses, estate taxes, or the family allowances a surviving spouse or minor children are entitled to, your personal representative can reach the transfer on death deed property to make up the difference, the same way they could if the property had gone through probate. Our Executor Responsibilities page covers what else falls inside that inventory. The personal representative has 90 days after a payment demand to act; after that, a creditor, a distributee, a surviving spouse, a guardian, or a taxing authority can bring the claim directly, and the whole window closes two years after death. None of this means the deed failed at its one job — Section 114.106(b) is clear that the property still isn't considered part of the probate estate for any purpose — it means "avoids probate" and "protected from every claim against your estate" are two different promises, and the deed only makes the first one. A named beneficiary can also disclaim some or all of the gift under Chapter 122, the same as they could disclaim any other inheritance.
When a Transfer on Death Deed Isn't the Right Tool
The deed only reaches real property you own individually in your own name — it can't touch property you don't personally hold title to. If you've moved rental property or other real estate into an LLC, for liability or tax reasons, you no longer personally own that real estate; the LLC does, and what you own instead is a membership interest in the LLC. A transfer on death deed you sign doesn't reach property titled to the LLC at all — the membership interest itself is what needs an estate plan, a question our LLC for Estate Planning page covers. And because Section 114.054 requires contract capacity and rules out using a power of attorney, a transfer on death deed has to be signed while you're still capable of doing it yourself — it isn't a fallback once someone else is already managing your affairs. If avoiding probate for more than a single piece of real estate is the goal, our Revocable Living Trust vs. Will page covers the other main tool for doing that.