Virginia Transfer-on-Death Deed

Virginia has adopted the Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act, which lets an individual transfer property to one or more beneficiaries effective at the moment of their death through a transfer-on-death deed. This is Virginia's own statutory TOD deed — not Florida's enhanced life-estate deed — so its requirements and consequences need to be read under Virginia law specifically, rather than borrowed from another state's rules (Virginia Code § 64.2-624).

For the deed to be valid, it has to carry all the formalities of a recordable inter vivos deed, state explicitly that the transfer takes effect at the transferor's death, and actually be recorded in the correct circuit-court land records before the transferor dies. If the property has joint owners, every one of them has to sign for the deed to be effective — and a form that's signed but never recorded before death simply doesn't satisfy the statute (Virginia Code § 64.2-628).