Florida: Affidavit of Surviving Joint Tenant Title-Clearance Requirements
The short answer
Florida expressly authorizes recording a certified copy of the death certificate in the county Official Records; it does not require a separate survivorship affidavit, continuous-marriage affidavit, or property description. A Florida-issued recorded copy excludes confidential death-record information, while an out-of-state certified copy may be recorded whether or not it does. Recording gives notice of the instrument but does not itself convey title or conclusively prove that survivorship was valid and unsevered.
Ask Ezel about your situation
This is the general rule in Florida. Ask about your specific facts and see which parts of current Florida law apply, with citations to the statutes.
| Covered survivorship title | Express joint tenancy with survivorship; tenancy by the entirety is the statutory exception to the tenancy-in-common presumption (§ 689.15). Death-certificate recordability is not title-form limited (§ 28.222) |
|---|---|
| Instrument or filing | Certified death certificate may be recorded; no statewide survivor affidavit is required or prescribed (§ 28.222(3)(g)) |
| Who may sign or file | No affiant or filer class; clerk records a qualifying certified copy when presented and fees are paid (§ 28.222(3)) |
| Required contents | The certified certificate itself; Florida-issued copy excludes information confidential under § 382.008. No property description, deed reference, survivor recital, or APN required by § 28.222(3)(g) |
| Death evidence | Certified Florida Department of Health death certificate with confidential data excluded, or certified copy from another state whether or not excluded (§ 28.222(3)(g)) |
| Execution formalities | No signature, oath, acknowledgment, witnesses, or notary for the certified-certificate route. A separately recorded real-property affidavit would need acknowledgment or proof under § 695.03 |
| Office and deadline | Clerk of the circuit court as county recorder, in Official Records; no deadline or express property-county direction for the certificate in §§ 28.222 or 695.11 |
| Statewide companion filings | Conditional estate-tax affidavit may be recorded under § 198.32(2), but subsection (3) removes the affidavit and lien for qualifying post-2004 estates; not a universal death-record companion |
| Recording effect | When officially numbered, notice to all persons; Official Records remain public. Statutes do not call the certificate a conveyance or conclusive title proof (§§ 28.222(7), 695.11) |
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Requirements one by one
Covered title and the recordable instrument
Florida Statutes § 689.15 separates the title question from the recording
question. An estate by the entirety carries the section's express exception.
For other co-owners, a conveyance to two or more creates a tenancy in common
unless the creating instrument expressly provides a right of survivorship.
Recording death evidence cannot add survivorship language that the deed lacks.
For an already-valid survivorship title, § 28.222(3)(g) gives the statewide
public-record route. The clerk records a certified copy authorized by the
Florida Department of Health that excludes information confidential under
§ 382.008, or a certified copy issued by another state whether or not that
information is excluded. The statute prescribes the certificate itself, not a
separate affidavit.
Filer, contents, and formalities
Section 28.222(3) directs the clerk to record listed instruments when they are
presented and the statutory service charges are paid. It names no survivor,
personal representative, lawyer, or other exclusive presenter. Subsection
(3)(g) likewise requires no property description, parcel number, creating-deed
reference, survivor identification, marriage recital, affidavit signature,
oath, acknowledgment, witnesses, or notary.
Florida Statutes § 695.03 matters only if someone chooses to record a separately
executed instrument concerning the real property. That instrument's execution
must be acknowledged by the executing party, proved by a subscribing witness,
or otherwise legalized or authenticated through the section's routes. Those
formalities should not be imported into the expressly recordable certified
death certificate.
Office, deadline, companions, and effect
Under § 28.222(1)-(2), the clerk of the circuit court serves as county recorder
and places the certificate in the county's Official Records. The death-
certificate subsection states no deadline and does not itself direct recording
in every county containing the property.
Florida Statutes § 198.32 supplies a separate, conditional tax instrument.
Subsection (2) lets a personal representative record the department's
nonliability affidavit when the estate is nontaxable and no return is required.
Subsection (3), however, says no such affidavit is required and no subsection
(1) lien applies to a post-2004 decedent when the stated federal estate-tax or
generation-skipping credit is unavailable. The tax affidavit is therefore not a
universal companion to the death certificate.
Finally, § 695.11 says the instrument is officially recorded and becomes notice
to all persons when the clerk affixes the consecutive official register number.
Section 28.222(7)(a) keeps it open to public inspection. Neither section says
the certificate conveys title or conclusively proves that survivorship existed
and remained unsevered.
What trips people up
A deed to two people is not automatically survivorship title. Outside an
estate by the entirety, § 689.15 makes tenancy in common the default unless the
creating instrument expressly provides survivorship.
A recordable certificate is not an affidavit form. Section 28.222 requires
the clerk to accept the certified death certificate. It does not require a
survivor's identity statement, continuous-marriage recital, deed reference, legal
description, jurat, or notary block.
The estate-tax affidavit is not universal. Section 198.32(2) permits a
personal representative's department-prescribed nonliability affidavit, but
subsection (3) removes both the affidavit requirement and lien for a post-2004
estate when its federal-credit condition is met.
Common questions
Must I sign an affidavit to record the death? Not under § 28.222(3)(g).
That subsection directs the clerk to record a qualifying certified death
certificate and names no affiant.
Does the certificate need a property description? The statewide certificate
provision does not require one. It records death evidence, not a parcel-specific
conveyance.
Is an affidavit of continuous marriage required for entirety property?
Neither § 689.15 nor § 28.222 prescribes that affidavit. Local or title practice
may ask for additional evidence, but it is not part of this statewide statutory
route.
Does recording establish that the joint tenancy was never severed? No.
Section 695.11 gives notice of the recorded instrument. It does not adjudicate
the deed, marriage, severance, or competing title claims.
Statutes and sources
- Fla. Stat. § 689.15 — express-survivorship rule and entirety exception.
https://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0600-0699/0689/Sections/0689.15.html - Fla. Stat. § 28.222 — county recorder, certified death certificates, and public
Official Records.
https://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0000-0099/0028/Sections/0028.222.html - Fla. Stat. §§ 695.03, 695.11 — separately executed instrument formalities and
notice from official numbering.
https://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0600-0699/0695/Sections/0695.03.html
https://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0600-0699/0695/Sections/0695.11.html - Fla. Stat. § 198.32 — conditional estate-tax affidavit and post-2004 exception.
https://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0100-0199/0198/Sections/0198.32.html
All sources accessed 2026-08-02.
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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