Affidavit of Surviving Joint Tenant Title-Clearance Requirements in Utah

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Covered interests and automatic termination

Utah Code § 57-1-5.1 begins with the substantive event: a joint-tenancy, tenancy-by-the-entirety, or life-estate interest terminates when the tenant holding it dies. The affidavit is the optional instrument that discloses that termination in the land record; it does not create the death-based termination.

The ownership vocabulary is broader than the three labels in § 57-1-5.1. Section 57-1-5 says tenants by the entirety and tenants holding title as community property are considered joint tenants. For grants on or after May 1, 2024, it also presumes that an ownership interest granted to two or more persons in their own right is a joint tenancy with survivorship unless severed, converted, or expressly stated otherwise.

Contents, death exhibit, and signer

The affidavit must identify the terminated interest, give the affected land's legal description, and reference the creating instrument by entry number and by book and page. A copy of the death certificate or another government-agency death document described in § 75-1-107 is attached as an exhibit.

Section 75-1-107 gives certified or authenticated death certificates prima-facie effect for the fact, place, date, and time of death and the decedent's identity. It gives the same evidentiary status to a certified or authenticated government record or report for the status and disclosed dates, circumstances, and places.

Section 57-1-5.1 does not reserve the affidavit to the surviving owner or a personal representative. Its substantial form uses a named affiant “being of legal age,” links the person on the death document to the party in the recorded creating instrument, dates and signs the affidavit, and includes a notary jurat. It states no witness or express personal-knowledge requirement.

County recording and legal effect

The affidavit records with the recorder of the county where the affected land is located. Section 57-1-5.1 states no number of days or months after death by which the affidavit must be filed.

The substantial statutory form says the affidavit is given to “terminate of record” the decedent's interest. Section 57-3-102 adds the general notice rule: a document executed, acknowledged, and certified as Title 57 prescribes imparts notice to all persons of its contents from recording with the appropriate county recorder. Neither provision says the affidavit cures a pre-death severance or an invalid creating instrument.

What trips people up

The signer need not be the survivor. The statutory form asks for a legal-age affiant, not specifically the surviving joint tenant. It instead supplies sworn same-person and recording-reference statements.

The exhibit is part of the statutory package. The death certificate copy or other qualifying government death document is not merely a county preference; § 57-1-5.1(1)(b)(iv) places it in the affidavit requirements.

A life estate uses the same section. Section 57-1-5.1 is not confined to survivorship co-ownership. It expressly includes termination of a deceased life tenant's interest.

Common questions

Must the attached death certificate be certified? Section 57-1-5.1 says a “copy” of the death certificate or other qualifying government document. Section 75-1-107 separately gives a certified or authenticated copy prima-facie evidentiary effect; § 57-1-5.1 does not replace “copy” with “certified copy.”

Does the affidavit need two witnesses? No witness requirement appears in § 57-1-5.1. The substantial form instead uses a sworn affiant signature and a notary jurat.

Is there a statewide filing deadline? No. The statute identifies the county recorder but states no post-death filing period.

Does recording fix a severed joint tenancy? No. The affidavit discloses a termination upon death of a covered interest. It does not undo a severance or establish that the creating instrument was valid.

Statutes and sources

• Utah Code § 57-1-5.1 — covered death-based terminations, mandatory affidavit fields and death exhibit, county office, and substantial sworn form. https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title57/Chapter1/C57-1-S5.1_2022050420220504.html (accessed 2026-08-03).
• Utah Code § 57-1-5 — current joint-tenancy presumption and treatment of entirety and community-property titleholders as joint tenants. https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title57/Chapter1/C57-1-S5_2024050120240501.html (accessed 2026-08-03).
• Utah Code § 75-1-107 — evidentiary status of certified or authenticated death certificates and other government status records. https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title75/Chapter1/C75-1-S107_2023050320230503.html (accessed 2026-08-03).
• Utah Code § 57-3-102(1) — notice imparted by a properly executed, acknowledged, certified, and recorded document. https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title57/Chapter3/C57-3-S102_2025050720250507.html (accessed 2026-08-03).