Code of Alabama - Title 35: Property - Chapter 4 - Conveyances and Creation of Estates
- Article 1 General Provisions.
- Section 35-4-1 Who may convey lands by deed or will
All persons of the age of 19 years and not under a legal incapacity may alien their lands and any interest therein, whether immediate or...
- Section 35-4-2 Estate taken as fee simple unless expressly limited
Every estate in lands is to be taken as a fee simple, although the words necessary to create an estate of inheritance are not used,...
- Section 35-4-3 Fee tail converted into fee simple
Every estate in real or personal property in fee tail, now or hereafter created, becomes an estate in fee simple, and the person in whom...
- Section 35-4-4 Rule against perpetuities
Repealed by Act 2011-532, p. 880, §2, effective January 1, 2012.
- Section 35-4-5 Conveyance to avoid perpetuities
Lands may be conveyed within the limits fixed by law, so as to avoid perpetuities, and subject to such other restrictions as are imposed by...
- Section 35-4-6 Maximum term of leasehold estate; acknowledgment or approval and recordation of leases for more than 20 years
No leasehold estate can be created for a longer term than 99 years. Leases for more than 20 years shall be void for the excess...
- Section 35-4-7 Survivorship between joint tenants
When one joint tenant dies before the severance, his interest does not survive to the other joint tenants but descends and vests as if his...
- Section 35-4-8 Posthumous children included in "heirs," "issue," or "children."
Where a future estate is limited to "heirs," "issue," or "children," posthumous children are entitled to take the estate in the same manner as if...
- Section 35-4-9 Ownership of title instruments
Instruments essential to the title of real property and which are not kept in a public office, as a record, pursuant to law, belong to...
- Article 2 Execution, Attestation, and Acknowledgment.
- Section 35-4-20 Conveyance required to be in writing; signature; attestation by witnesses
Conveyances for the alienation of lands must be written or printed, or partly written and partly printed, on parchment or paper, and must be signed...
- Section 35-4-21 Seal unnecessary
A seal is not necessary to convey the legal title to land to enable the grantee to bring a civil action. Any instrument in writing,...
- Section 35-4-22 Effect of writings importing to be under seal
All writings which import on their face to be under seal are to be taken as sealed instruments and have the same effect as if...
- Section 35-4-23 Acknowledgment - Operates as compliance with witness requirements
The acknowledgment provided for in this article operates as a compliance with the requisitions of section 35-4-20 upon the subject of witnesses.
- Section 35-4-24 Acknowledgment - Officers authorized to take in this state
Acknowledgments and proofs of conveyances may be taken by the following officers within this state: Judges of the Supreme Court, the Court of Civil Appeals,...
- Section 35-4-25 Acknowledgment - Officers holding stock in certain corporations
An acknowledgment or proof of any deed, mortgage, or other conveyance to or by a corporation, national banking association, building and loan association, or savings...
- Section 35-4-26 Acknowledgment - Officers authorized to take outside Alabama; validity; certification
(a) Acknowledgments, proofs of conveyances, and affidavits may be taken within the United States and beyond the State of Alabama, by judges and clerks of...
- Section 35-4-27 Acknowledgment - Proof of official seal
All deeds, powers of attorney and other instruments of conveyance, affidavits or contracts purporting to be acknowledged, proved or verified as prescribed by law, and...
- Section 35-4-28 Acknowledgment - Powers of attorney, etc
Powers of attorney or other instruments conferring authority to convey property or to enter satisfaction of mortgages or other liens may be proved or acknowledged...
- Section 35-4-29 Form of acknowledgment
The following are substantially the forms of acknowledgment to be used in this state, on conveyances and instruments of every description admitted to record: ACKNOWLEDGMENT...
- Section 35-4-30 Form of probate of conveyance
The form of a probate of a conveyance or other instrument is as follows: The State of ________} ____________ County} I, (name and style of...
- Section 35-4-31 Livery of seisin unnecessary
Livery of seisin is not necessary in any conveyance of lands, and the property and possession of the grantor pass as fully by his conveyance...
- Section 35-4-32 Attornment of tenant unnecessary
Every conveyance of an estate in any hereditament, corporeal or incorporeal, is good and effectual without attornment of the tenant; but no tenant who has...
- Section 35-4-33 Judgment for specific performance
A judgment for specific performance shall operate as a deed to convey land or other property without any conveyance being executed by the vendor. Such...
- Section 35-4-34 Recitation of consideration unnecessary
No deed or other conveyance creating or transferring any interest in land shall be invalid or ineffective because of the fact that it does not...
- Article 3 Recordation and Registration in General.
- Division 1 General Provisions.
- Section 35-4-50 Conveyances required to be recorded in office of probate judge
Conveyances of property, required by law to be recorded, must be recorded in the office of the judge of probate.
- Section 35-4-51 What instruments admitted to record; filing as notice of contents; section cumulative
Except as may be otherwise provided by the Uniform Commercial Code, all deeds, mortgages, deeds of trust, bills of sale, contracts, or other documents purporting...
- Section 35-4-52 Petitions, decrees, or orders of bankruptcy
(a) A certified copy of the petition, with or without the schedules thereto, of the decree of adjudication or of the order approving the trustee's...
- Section 35-4-51.1 Recordation of memorandum of lease; contents; effect
(a) A memorandum of a lease may be recorded in lieu of the lease itself if the memorandum is executed and acknowledged by the lessor...
- Section 35-4-53 Bonds for title, etc
Every bond for title or other written contract for the sale of land, acknowledged or witnessed as required by law, as well as any purchase...
- Section 35-4-54 Conveyances of personal property brought into state by tenants for life or years
Whenever any person, having an estate for life or years in personal property removes to this state with such property, the conveyance creating such estate...
- Section 35-4-55 Choses in action not "personal property" within meaning used in division
Choses in action are not included in the words "personal property" in this division.
- Section 35-4-56 Patents
Patents from this state or the United States to lands in this state may be recorded in the office of the judge of probate of...
- Section 35-4-57 Deeds of assignment for benefit of creditors
All deeds of assignment executed by debtors for the benefit of creditors shall, as soon as executed, be filed and recorded in the office of...
- Section 35-4-58 Mode of recording generally; time stamp; fees
Judges of probate are to procure, at the expense of their counties, large and well-bound books, in which must be recorded in a fair hand,...
- Section 35-4-59 Conveyance operative as record from date of delivery; receipt
The conveyance or other instrument is operative as a record from the day of the delivery to the judge; and anyone delivering a conveyance or...
- Section 35-4-60 Access to books; transcripts
Such judge must permit all persons to have free access to such books during office hours and furnish transcripts therefrom, with certificates when required, upon...
- Section 35-4-61 Liability of probate judge for failure to perform duties generally
If any judge of probate neglects or refuses to perform any of the duties required by this division, he is liable to a civil action...
- Section 35-4-62 Locations for recording conveyances in real property, deeds, mortgages, etc
(a) Conveyances of real property shall be recorded in the county in which the property is situated. (b) A deed, mortgage, certificate of judgment, state...
- Section 35-4-63 Recording effective as notice of contents of conveyance
The recording in the proper office of any conveyance of property or other instrument which may be legally admitted to record operates as a notice...
- Section 35-4-64 Purchasers protected in dealing with record owner as owner of indebtedness
Purchasers of real property against which there are recorded mortgages, vendor's liens, judgments, and other liens shall be protected in assuming that the record owner...
- Section 35-4-65 When conveyance receivable in evidence
Conveyances of property, real or personal, or any interest therein, whether absolute or on condition, which are acknowledged or proved according to law and recorded...
- Section 35-4-66 Recording certified copies of instruments
It shall be lawful to record certified copies of deeds, mortgages, maps and other papers affecting the title to property in any probate office in...
- Section 35-4-67 Proof of conveyances executed in name of corporation
(a) Any deed, mortgage or other conveyance of property which purports on its face to have been executed in the name of any corporation by...
- Section 35-4-68 Form of proof or acknowledgment of conveyances
All conveyances admitted to record on proof must be attested by two witnesses, and the proof or acknowledgment must comply substantially with the foregoing forms...
- Section 35-4-69 Affidavits - Record as notice of facts recited; by whom made
Affidavits heretofore recorded or that may hereafter be recorded showing the relationship of parties or other persons to conveyances of lands, the relationship of any...
- Section 35-4-70 Affidavits - Admissibility as evidence
In any litigation over any of the lands referred to and described in any of such affidavits, in any court in the state of Alabama...
- Section 35-4-71 Affidavits - Filing and recordation by probate judge
The affidavits referred to in Sections 35-4-69 and 35-4-70 shall be filed by the probate judge of the county where offered for filing and by...
- Section 35-4-72 Improperly acknowledged or recorded instruments as evidence
When a validly executed instrument, not properly acknowledged and recorded, has for 10 years been of record in the office of the judge of probate,...
- Section 35-4-73 Recitation of marital status of grantor or vendor required; probate judge not liable for good faith error; false recitation a misdemeanor
(a) No deed, contract, or other conveyance of land or any interest therein, whether legal or equitable, shall be accepted for record by the probate...
- Section 35-4-74 Necessity for including plat or description of plat book, etc.; probate judge not liable for good faith error
(a) No instrument, other than a will, purporting to create or transfer any interest in land shall be accepted for record by a probate judge...
- Section 35-4-75 Time for delivery of deed; when recorded contract presumed abandoned
(a) Where any contract or extension thereof for the sale of any interest in land fails to state the time within which, or the circumstances...
- Section 35-4-76 Limitations on duration of option to purchase land
(a) No option to purchase any interest in land, other than an option limited in favor of a lessee and exercisable at a time not...
- Division 2 Recordation Necessary as to Purchasers, Mortgagees, and Judgment Creditors.
- Section 35-4-90 Conveyances of real property generally
(a) All conveyances of real property, deeds, mortgages, deeds of trust, or instruments in the nature of mortgages to secure any debts are inoperative and...
- Section 35-4-91 Instruments creating estates in remainder, etc
All wills and conveyances, creating estates in lands in remainder or reversion or upon a condition, after an estate for life or lives, are inoperative...
- Section 35-4-92 Transfers of standing timber, trees, and cutting rights
Except as may be otherwise provided by Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code, all conveyances, mortgages, and other instruments executed hereafter for the purpose...
- Section 35-4-93 Marriage settlements
Personal property conveyed in consideration of marriage, when the possession remains with the husband or the husband and wife, must be taken as the property...
- Section 35-4-94 Loans in writing, wills or conveyances creating estates in personal property on condition, etc
All loans in writing, wills, or conveyances creating estates in personal property, on condition, in reversion or remainder, or in which the use is separated...
- Section 35-4-95 Effect of loans of personal property not in writing
All loans of personal property, not in writing, vest an absolute estate in the person in possession under such loan, as to purchasers and creditors...
- Section 35-4-96 Conveyances of personalty to minors
All conveyances of personal property in favor of minor children, except by will, where the custody, control, and visible possession thereof is suffered to remain...
- Section 35-4-97 Effect of parol gifts of personal property
Parol gifts of personal property are inoperative until the custody, control, management, and use of the property passes from the donor to the donee and...
- Section 35-4-98 When conditional sales contract received in evidence
Such a conditional sales contract, when the execution thereof has been acknowledged or proved before an officer having authority to take and certify the acknowledgment...
- Division 3 Statement of Name and Address of Preparer of Certain Instruments.
- Division 4 Alabama Uniform Real Property Electronic Recording Act.
- Section 35-4-120 Short title
This division may be cited as the Alabama Uniform Real Property Electronic Recording Act.
- Section 35-4-121 Definitions
In this division: (1) "Document" means information that is: a. Inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium...
- Section 35-4-122 Validity of electronic documents
(a) If a law requires, as a condition for recording, that a document be an original, be on paper or another tangible medium, or be...
- Section 35-4-123 Recording of documents
(a) In this section, "paper document" means a document that is received by the judge of probate in a form that is not electronic. (b)...
- Section 35-4-124 Administration and standards
(a) The Electronic Recording Commission consisting of 14 members is created to adopt standards to implement this division. The members shall be appointed as follows:...
- Section 35-4-125 Scope and restrictions
Except as expressly provided in this division or the standards adopted by the Electronic Recording Commission, nothing in this division or any rule adopted pursuant...
- Section 35-4-126 Uniformity of application and construction
In applying and construing this uniform act, consideration must be given to the need to promote uniformity of the law with respect to its subject...
- Section 35-4-127 Relation to Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act
This division modifies, limits, and supersedes the federal Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (15 U.S.C. Section 7001, et seq.) but does not...
- Article 4 Lis Pendens.
- Section 35-4-130 Lis pendens record
The judge of probate of each county in this state shall keep in his office as a public record a suitable book, to be called...
- Section 35-4-131 Notice of actions, etc
(a) When any civil action or proceeding shall be brought in any court to enforce any lien upon, right to or interest in, or to...
- Section 35-4-132 Notice of levy
When a sheriff, constable, United States marshal, or other officer shall levy upon land by virtue of any process, he shall file with the judge...
- Section 35-4-133 Notices to be recorded in full; indorsement on original
Any notice filed with the judge of probate under this article shall be recorded in such record in full, and the original of such notice...
- Section 35-4-134 Index of notices
The judge of probate, upon filing and recording each notice, shall index the same, both directly and indirectly, under the name of each party to...
- Section 35-4-135 Bona fide purchasers, etc., protected upon failure to record notice
If the notice required by Sections 35-4-131 and 35-4-132 shall not be entered in the lis pendens record, the action, proceeding, or application shall not...
- Section 35-4-136 Record of termination of action; microfilm
Where the action, proceeding, or levy, notice of which has been entered in the lis pendens record, shall be terminated, whether on the merits or...
- Section 35-4-137 Release of land from lien upon execution of bond
When any lis pendens in an action or proceeding to enforce a lien has been filed and recorded in the office of the judge of...
- Section 35-4-138 Fees for recording notice
The judge of probate, for the services required of him, shall receive a fee of $.15 for each 100 words for recording such notice, which...
- Section 35-4-139 Liability of judges and officers on bonds
If any judge of probate shall fail to perform any of the duties required of him by this article, he shall be liable on his...
- Article 5 Reformation of Deeds, Mortgages, and Conveyances.
- Section 35-4-150 Civil action for reformation of conveyances containing erroneous description
Any person claiming title to land directly or remotely from the grantee in a deed, mortgage, or other conveyance containing an erroneous description, may maintain...
- Section 35-4-151 Error in any description sufficient to maintain civil action
In order to authorize a person claiming title under the grantee in a deed, mortgage, or other conveyance containing an erroneous description to maintain a...
- Section 35-4-152 Grantors, etc., may be made parties defendant
The grantors in any number of conveyances in the chain of title of the complainant may be made parties defendant to the civil action for...
- Section 35-4-153 Fraud or mistake
When, through fraud, or a mutual mistake of the parties, or a mistake of one party which the other at the time knew or suspected,...
- Article 6 Life Estates.
- Article 7 Ascertainment and Payment of Life or Dower Interests.
- Article 8 Remainders and Executory Devises.
- Article 9 Rule in Shelley's Case.
- Article 10 Trust Estate and Uses.
- Section 35-4-250 Effect of use, trust, or confidence for mere benefit of third persons
No use, trust, or confidence can be declared of any land, or of any charge upon the same, for the mere benefit of third persons;...
- Section 35-4-251 Trusts may be created for lawful purpose; necessity for legal title to vest in trustees
Repealed by Act 2006-216, p. 314, §5, effective January 1, 2007.
- Section 35-4-252 Term of trust for accumulation
Repealed by Act 2006-216, p. 314, §5, effective January 1, 2007.
- Section 35-4-253 Application of income for accumulation to support of minor
Repealed by Act 2006-216, p. 314, §5, effective January 1, 2007.
- Section 35-4-254 Responsibility of payor for payment made to trustee
Repealed by Act 2006-216, p. 314, §5, effective January 1, 2007.
- Section 35-4-255 Trust concerning lands required to be in writing
THIS SECTION WAS TRANSFERRED TO SECTION 19-3B-1301 BY ACT 2006-216, EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1, 2007 No trust concerning lands, except such as results by implication or...
- Section 35-4-256 Trust void as to creditors or purchasers without notice
Transferred to Section 19-3B-1302 effective January 1, 2007
- Section 35-4-257 Recording as notice of trust
When a trust is created or declared by any such instrument in writing, the recording thereof in the county where the lands lie is equivalent...
- Section 35-4-259 Trusts for employees or self-employed persons
Transferred to Section 19-3B-1304 effective January 1, 2007.
- Section 35-4-258 Trust estate not descendible upon death of trustee
Transferred to Section 19-3B-1303 effective January 1, 2007
- Section 35-4-260 Trusts consisting of insurance policies or proceeds
Transferred to Section 19-3B-1305 effective January 1, 2007.
- Article 11 Warranties and Covenants.
- Article 12 Powers.
- Section 35-4-290 Reservation of power by grantor
(a) The grantor, in any conveyance, may reserve to himself any power beneficial, or in trust, which he may lawfully grant to another. (b) When...
- Section 35-4-291 Powers deemed absolute
Every power of disposition is deemed absolute, by means of which the donee of such power is enabled in his lifetime to dispose of the...
- Section 35-4-292 Effect of grant of absolute power
(a) When an absolute power of disposition, not accompanied by any trust, is given to the owner of a particular estate for life or years,...
- Section 35-4-293 Dispositions valid to extent of power
No disposition by virtue of a power is void on the ground that it is more extensive than was authorized by the power; but every...
- Section 35-4-294 Power disposing of real estate required to be in writing
No power of disposing of real estate can be executed, except by an instrument in writing, which would be sufficient in law to pass the...
- Section 35-4-295 Requirements for disposition by devise or will
When a power to dispose of lands is confined to a disposition by devise or will, the instrument of execution must be by will, duly...
- Section 35-4-296 Execution in cases where instrument specified is insufficient
When the donor of a power has directed it to be executed by an instrument not sufficient in law to pass the estate, the power...
- Section 35-4-297 Disposition by, between, or among several persons generally
When a disposition under a power is directed to be made by, between or among several persons, without specifying the sum or share to be...
- Section 35-4-298 Execution of power upon death of trustee with right of selection
If the trustee of a power, with the right of selection, dies, leaving the power unexecuted, its execution may be ordered for the equal benefit...
- Section 35-4-299 Consent of third persons to execution of power
When the consent of a third person to the execution of a power is requisite, such consent must be expressed in the instrument by which...
- Section 35-4-300 Disposition to or among children
When a disposition under an appointment or a power is directed to be made to or among the children of any person, without restricting it...
- Section 35-4-301 Powers irrevocable unless otherwise indicated
Every power, beneficial or in trust, is irrevocable, unless an authority to revoke it is contained or reserved in the instrument creating the power.
- Section 35-4-302 Release of powers
(a) Any power which is exercisable by deed, by will, by deed or will, or otherwise, whether general or special, other than a power in...
- Section 35-4-303 Execution of power by surviving or acting executors; presumption that power not personal
Where lands are devised to one or more executors, or a naked power given by the will to sell, the survivor or survivors, where there...
- Section 35-4-304 Execution of power by surviving donee
When a power is vested in several persons and, previous to the execution, one or more of such persons dies, it may be executed by...
- Section 35-4-305 Special and beneficial powers liable to claims of creditors
Every special and beneficial power is liable to the claims of creditors, and the execution of the same may be ordered for their benefit.
- Section 35-4-306 Article not extended to simple power of attorney
The provisions of this article in relation to powers do not extend to a simple power of attorney to convey lands in the name and...
- Article 13 Conveyances by Executors and Administrators.
- Article 14 Conveyances by Literary or Social Societies, etc.
- Section 35-4-340 Who may convey title
A majority of the trustees or any other authorized agent of any literary society, social society, Young Men's Christian Association, or Young Women's Christian Association...
- Section 35-4-341 Meeting of trustees; execution of deed
(a) Before such deed may be executed, a majority of the board of trustees of the literary society, social society, Young Men's Christian Association, or...
- Section 35-4-342 Property subject to provisions of article
The provisions of this article shall apply to the conveyance of real estate heretofore acquired or that may be hereafter acquired by such literary society,...
- Section 35-4-343 Vendor's lien, etc
Nothing in this article shall prevent any literary society, social society, Young Men's Christian Association, or Young Women's Christian Association from retaining a vendor's lien...
- Section 35-4-344 Article not exclusive
This article shall not be construed as prescribing the exclusive way in which any literary society, social society, Young Men's Christian Association, or Young Women's...
- Article 15 Conveyances of Standing Timber.
- Section 35-4-360 Time for cutting and removal of timber
(a) In all conveyances of standing timber by deed or other instrument, wherein no provision is made as to when the grantee shall cut and...
- Section 35-4-361 Right-of-way over timberlands
In all conveyances of standing timber, by deed or other instrument, containing no stipulation as to a right-of-way over and across the lands on which...
- Section 35-4-362 Reversion of title to uncut timber
In all conveyances of standing timber, by deed or other instrument, unless otherwise provided in said deed or other instrument, the title to all timber...
- Section 35-4-363 When standing timber and trees, etc., deemed chattels
All standing timber and trees, and cutting rights with respect thereto, while owned by or mortgaged to anyone other than the owner of the land...
- Article 16 Conveyances, etc., by Governor or State Agency or Institution.
- Section 35-4-380 Lease of salt springs, etc
(a) The Commissioner of Conservation and Natural Resources by and with the approval of the Governor may lease the salt springs and lands granted to...
- Section 35-4-381 Sale of right to quarry limestone and clay
The Governor may sell the right to quarry limestone and clays necessary or proper for the manufacture of cement upon the following lands: Sections 21...
- Section 35-4-382 Validity of conveyances by state agencies
All conveyances of real estate made by any department, commission, or other agency of the state, when the legal title to any property is vested...
- Section 35-4-383 Validity of leases, etc., by state agencies
(a) All leases, contracts of exchange, or other dispositions of real estate for more than one year made by any department, commission, or other agency...
- Section 35-4-384 Sale of contingent interests by state institutions
Any state institution including schools, colleges, or other educational institutions which may own or be entitled to any contingent interest in any real estate situated...
- Section 35-4-385 Conveyance of lands owned by the state
When any department of the state, having power and authority to obtain and negotiate a sale of any lands claimed or owned by the state,...
- Section 35-4-386 Patent to decedent vests title in his successors
Where patents for public lands have been or may be issued pursuant to any law of the State of Alabama to a person who has...
- Section 35-4-387 Recordation of patents
The Secretary of State must record, in well-bound books, all grants and patents issued by the state.
- Section 35-4-388 When purchaser entitled to receive patent
All purchasers of real property belonging to this state, their heirs and assigns, except in cases otherwise provided by this Code, are entitled to receive...
- Section 35-4-389 Patents for swamp and overflowed lands
The Governor may issue patents to the purchasers of swamp and overflowed lands or lands in lieu of swamp and overflowed lands which were made...
- Section 35-4-390 Prior conveyances ratified and confirmed
All conveyances of land owned or claimed by the state made by the Governor in the name of the state prior to August 17, 1924,...
- Section 35-4-391 Conveyances in cases of lost deeds or adverse possession
When it is made to appear to the satisfaction of the Attorney General, by the owner or claimant of any land owned or claimed by...
- Section 35-4-393 Settlement of dispute as to certain property in Mobile County conveyed to University of South Alabama Foundation by University of South Alabama
(a) WHEREAS, on December 13, 1982, the state issued to the university a patent to certain lands in Mobile County, herein called "the patent," covering...
- Article 17 Alienation of Certain Public Improvements by Political Subdivisions of State.
- Article 18 Private Transfer Fees.
- Section 35-4-430 Intent
The Legislature finds and declares that the public policy of this state favors the marketability of real property and the transferability of interests in real...
- Section 35-4-431 Definitions
(a) As used in this article, the following words have the following meanings: (1) ASSOCIATION. An association or unit owners' association, as defined in Section...
- Section 35-4-432 Prohibition
A private transfer fee obligation recorded or entered into in this state on or after May 25, 2011, does not run with the title to...
- Section 35-4-433 Liability for violations
(a) Any person who records or enters into an agreement imposing a private transfer fee obligation in his or her favor after May 25, 2011,...
- Section 35-4-434 Disclosure
(a) Any contract for the sale of real property subject to a private transfer fee obligation shall include a provision disclosing the existence of that...
- Section 35-4-435 Notice requirements for existing private transfer fee obligations
(a) The payee of a private transfer fee obligation imposed prior to May 25, 2011, shall record, prior to December 31, 2011, against the real...
Last modified: May 3, 2021