District of Columbia: Inheritance Disclaimer and Renunciation Requirements

Requirements one by one

Governing law and covered interests

The District's Uniform Disclaimer of Property Interests Act is D.C. Code
§§ 19-1501 to -1518. Section 19-1503 applies it to any interest in or power over
property, whenever created. The delivery provision separately addresses wills and
intestacy, testamentary and inter vivos trusts, beneficiary designations, jointly held
property, and powers of appointment.

Whole, partial, and conditional disclaimer

Section 19-1505 allows a disclaimer in whole or part, even if a spendthrift or similar
restriction attempts to limit transfer or disclaimer. A partial disclaimer may use a
fraction, percentage, dollar amount, term of years, limitation of a power, or another
interest or estate. Chapter 15 does not separately authorize a conditional form.

Writing or other record and required contents

The disclaimer may be a writing or another record stored on a tangible, electronic,
or other medium and retrievable in perceivable form. It must declare the disclaimer,
describe the interest or power, and be signed. Section 19-1505(c) does not require an
original, legal description, affidavit, or tax recital as part of the general contents
rule.

Signature and other execution formalities

The person making the disclaimer must sign it. Section 19-1505(c) defines signing to
include a tangible symbol or an electronic sound, symbol, or process attached or
logically associated with the record with present intent to authenticate or adopt it.
The general validity rule states no witness, acknowledgment, oath, or notarization
requirement.

District timing, irrevocability, and federal tax

Chapter 15 has no fixed ordinary District-law deadline. Instead, § 19-1513 bars or
limits the route when a listed event occurs before effectiveness or another law
supplies a limit. Under § 19-1505(e), the disclaimer becomes irrevocable at the later
of delivery or filing and statutory effectiveness for the relevant interest.

§ 19-1514 recognizes a disclaimer or transfer treated under federal tax law as
never transferred to the disclaimant. Federal qualification remains separate:
26 U.S.C. § 2518(b) supplies a nine-month receipt deadline, nonacceptance condition,
and no-direction rule. The federal tax clock is not the District's ordinary deadline.

Delivery, filing, and recipient

Section 19-1512 allows personal delivery, first-class mail, or another method likely
to result in receipt. The destination depends on the asset:

• A will or intestacy interest goes to the personal representative, with a court-
  filing fallback if none serves.
• A testamentary-trust interest goes to the trustee, then the personal representative,
  with the stated court fallback.
• An inter vivos trust interest goes to the trustee or court fallback; before the trust
  becomes irrevocable, it goes to the settlor of a revocable trust or the transferor.
• Before a beneficiary designation becomes irrevocable, delivery goes to the person
  who made it. Afterward, a personal-property disclaimer goes to the distribution
  obligor, while a real-property disclaimer uses the recording route below.
• A survivorship disclaimer goes to the person who takes because of it.
• Power-of-appointment interests go to the holder or relevant fiduciary, personal
  representative, or court fallback described in the section.

Real-property recording

The District uses a split rule. Section 19-1515 generally permits recording when the
instrument that transferred the disclaimed interest is required or permitted to be
recorded, and failure ordinarily does not defeat validity between the disclaimant and
successor takers. But § 19-1512(g)(2) requires recording with the Recorder of Deeds
for real property created by a beneficiary designation after that designation becomes
irrevocable.

Acceptance, transfers, and barred disclaimers

A written waiver bars the disclaimer. Section 19-1513 also bars an interest disclaimer
if, before effectiveness, the disclaimant accepts the interest; voluntarily assigns,
conveys, encumbers, pledges, transfers, or contracts to transfer it; or a judicial sale
occurs. Another law can also bar or limit the disclaimer. Chapter 15 states no express
insolvency or general creditor-claim bar.

A barred disclaimer of an interest operates as a transfer to the people who would
have taken under the Act had the disclaimer not been barred. A barred disclaimer of a
power is ineffective.

Effective time and destination

For an ordinary interest, § 19-1506 makes the disclaimer effective when the creating
instrument becomes irrevocable or, for intestacy, at death. An express disclaimer-
destination clause in the instrument controls. Without one, an individual generally
is treated as dying immediately before distribution, subject to the descendant and
future-interest rules.

The Act adds an estate-destination rule discussed below. Section 19-1507 separately
makes a disclaimed joint survivorship interest pass as if the disclaimant predeceased
the holder whose death triggered the disclaimer.

What trips people up

Delivery alone does not always make the disclaimer irrevocable. Section
19-1505(e) uses the later of delivery or filing and statutory effectiveness. For an
ordinary interest, § 19-1506 ties effectiveness to the creating instrument becoming
irrevocable or, for intestacy, to the death.

Not every real-property disclaimer has the same recording rule. General recording
under § 19-1515 is permissive, but § 19-1512(g)(2) requires Recorder of Deeds filing
for real property under an already irrevocable beneficiary designation.

Common questions

How much of jointly held property may the survivor disclaim? Under § 19-1507(a),
the survivor may disclaim the greater of a one-over-the-number-of-living-joint-holders
fraction or all value except the portion attributable to the survivor's contribution.

What if the default deemed-death rule would send the interest to the disclaimant's
estate? Section 19-1506(b)(3)(D) instead sends it by representation to surviving
descendants. If none survive, it uses the transferor's hypothetical intestacy while
excluding the disclaimant and applying the section's remarried-spouse instruction.

Statutes and sources

• D.C. Code §§ 19-1501, 19-1503, and 19-1505 to -1507 — Act title and scope,
  whole and partial form, record medium, electronic signature, irrevocability,
  effective time, destination, and joint-survivorship treatment.
  https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/19-1501
  https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/19-1503
  https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/19-1505
  https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/19-1506
  https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/19-1507
  (accessed 2026-08-01)
• D.C. Code § 19-1512 — delivery methods, asset-specific recipients, court fallbacks,
  and mandatory Recorder of Deeds filing for real property under an irrevocable
  beneficiary designation.
  https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/19-1512
  (accessed 2026-08-01)
• D.C. Code §§ 19-1513 to -1515 — bars, federal tax-qualified recognition, generally
  optional recording, and between-party validity after an omission.
  https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/19-1513
  https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/19-1514
  https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/19-1515
  (accessed 2026-08-01)
• 26 U.S.C. § 2518(b) — separate federal qualified-disclaimer requirements.
  https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title26/html/USCODE-2024-title26-subtitleB-chap12-subchapB-sec2518.htm
  (accessed 2026-08-01)