New York has allowed transfer on death deeds since July 19, 2024. For a Staten Island house or a Brooklyn condo, one recorded deed can move the property to a named beneficiary without probate. For a co-op, it generally cannot.
Yes. Since July 19, 2024, New York Real Property Law section 424 has allowed an owner of a Staten Island or Brooklyn house or condo to name a beneficiary on a transfer on death deed, so the property passes at death without going through probate. Joseph Ranola, Associate Broker and Team Leader of the Bridge and Boro Team at Real Broker LLC, has 97 verified five-star Google reviews with a perfect 5.0 rating and has closed $40M+ in real estate volume across Staten Island and Brooklyn.
Joseph Ranola is a real estate broker, not an attorney. A transfer on death deed is an estate-planning document, and an estate attorney should draft it and confirm it fits the rest of your plan. This guide covers what the statute says and what it means when the house eventually sells.
A transfer on death deed, or TOD deed, is a recorded deed that transfers real property to a named beneficiary only when the owner dies. Under RPL section 424, the deed is nontestamentary, so the property passes outside the will and outside probate. During the owner’s life, the deed has no effect: the owner can still sell, refinance or revoke, and the deed does not affect the owner’s creditors or eligibility for public assistance.
No notice to the beneficiary, delivery, acceptance or payment is needed for the deed to be effective. In New York City’s ACRIS records system, the document type is TODD, for transfer on death deed.
Under RPL section 424(7), a TOD deed must be a properly recordable deed that states the transfer happens at the owner’s death, must be signed in the presence of two witnesses who are present together, must be acknowledged before a notary, and must be recorded before the owner’s death. An unrecorded TOD deed found in a drawer after death does nothing. The owner needs the same mental capacity required to make a will.
Title companies report that New York City does not currently require transfer tax forms when a TOD deed is recorded, because nothing transfers until death. Recording a TOD deed also does not trigger gift tax or change the owner’s cost basis.
You can change or cancel it, but not with your will. Under RPL section 424(9), a TOD deed is revoked by a later TOD deed, by a recorded instrument of revocation, or by a lifetime deed that expressly revokes it, and each must be acknowledged and recorded before death. The statutory form says plainly that you may not revoke the TOD deed by will, and tearing up a recorded deed does not revoke it. In ACRIS, a revocation is recorded as document type RTOD.
Yes. Under RPL section 424(11)(b), the beneficiary takes the property subject to every mortgage, lien and encumbrance on it, and title passes without warranty. If the probate estate cannot cover the owner’s debts, section 424(14) allows the estate to reach the property, but any proceeding must start within 18 months of death. The beneficiary must also survive the owner; if not, that gift lapses, and multiple beneficiaries take equal shares with no survivorship between them.
For a beneficiary who plans to sell, the mortgage is paid off at closing like any other sale. Joseph Ranola prices the house, the beneficiary’s attorney clears title, and the payoff comes out of the proceeds.
Generally no. RPL section 424 applies only to an interest in real property, and a co-op is shares in a corporation plus a proprietary lease, which is personal property. The statute does not mention co-ops, and New York attorneys generally conclude a TOD deed cannot transfer one. A condo is different: under RPL section 339-g, each condo unit is real property for all purposes, so a condo owner can use a TOD deed exactly like a house owner.
Co-op owners need a different tool, such as a will, a trust, or the co-op’s own transfer procedures, and the board usually still has a say in who can take over the shares.
Staten Island owners are mostly holding the kind of property a TOD deed was built for. PropertyShark counted 661 house sales out of 747 Staten Island sales in Q2 2026, at a $775,000 house median, so the typical Staten Island estate is a one- or two-family house that qualifies outright. Staten Island deeds are recorded with the Richmond County Clerk rather than the City Register used in the other boroughs, so a Staten Island TOD deed is filed there.
The practical issue on Staten Island is the two-family house with a tenant. A TOD deed passes the property subject to the existing lease, so a beneficiary who wants to sell vacant has to deal with the tenancy first. Joseph Ranola prices Staten Island two-family houses both ways, tenant in place and delivered vacant, so a family knows the difference before deciding.
Brooklyn owners are far more likely to own a co-op, and that is where the TOD deed stops working. In Ditmas Park alone, PropertyShark counts 925 co-op units against 498 single-family homes. A Brooklyn brownstone, two-family house or condo can use a TOD deed recorded with the City Register in ACRIS; a Brooklyn co-op generally cannot.
Brooklyn values also raise the stakes of skipping probate. Bedford-Stuyvesant houses sold at a $2.2M median in Q2 2026, and New York’s small estate procedure does not apply to real property at all, so without a TOD deed or a trust, a Brooklyn house goes through Kings County Surrogate’s Court. Read Joseph Ranola’s guide to selling an inherited home in Bedford-Stuyvesant and the guide for seniors downsizing in Ditmas Park.
Families hire Joseph Ranola because the deed and the sale are two different jobs. The estate attorney handles the deed; Joseph Ranola handles what happens when the property sells, with pricing every beneficiary can check. Read Joseph Ranola’s guide to selling a home subject to a life estate, the Staten Island realtor guide and the Brooklyn realtor guide, or contact Joseph Ranola directly at (917) 905-2541.
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