republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20172018/ab-1739.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Nonprobate transfers: revocable transfer on death deeds."
description: "Existing law governs the execution, revocation, and effectiveness of a revocable transfer on death deed, defined as an instrument that makes a donative transfer of property to a named beneficiary that operates on the transferor's death, and remains revocable until the transferor's death. Existing law establishes a statutory form of revocable transfer on death deed that must be notarized and signed under penalty of perjury by the transferor and recorded with the county recorder, as specified. Existing law requires that subsequent pages of that form include common questions regarding the use of the form. Existing law requires that, in order to be effective, a revocable transfer on death deed must be recorded on or before 60 days after the date it was executed."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20172018"
identifier: "AB 1739"
citation: "California AB 1739 (20172018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Nonprobate transfers: revocable transfer on death deeds."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Chau"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 18
vote_count: 4
first_action: "2018-01-03"
last_action: "2018-07-09"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/3a30c098-fe1f-4212-bf4c-1f1f72c01513"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1739"
source_hash: "b37b13fa31c711d7e49ba75bbc25151d9ee03cf87775be77194ea2ba45f7a353"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 1739 (20172018) — Nonprobate transfers: revocable transfer on death deeds.

Existing law governs the execution, revocation, and effectiveness of a revocable transfer on death deed, defined as an instrument that makes a donative transfer of property to a named beneficiary that operates on the transferor's death, and remains revocable until the transferor's death. Existing law establishes a statutory form of revocable transfer on death deed that must be notarized and signed under penalty of perjury by the transferor and recorded with the county recorder, as specified. Existing law requires that subsequent pages of that form include common questions regarding the use of the form. Existing law requires that, in order to be effective, a revocable transfer on death deed must be recorded on or before 60 days after the date it was executed.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **01/03/18 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1739&version=20170AB173999INT)
2. **03/06/18 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1739&version=20170AB173998AMD)
3. **07/09/18 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1739&version=20170AB173996CHP)
4. **AB1739** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1739)
5. **06/27/18 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1739&version=20170AB173997ENR)

## Votes

- AB 1739 CHAU Third Reading Urgency — **70–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. — **10–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be ordered to the Consent Calendar — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Consent Calendar (Urgency Clause) — **36–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Chau — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2018-01-03** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2018-01-04** From printer. May be heard in committee February 3.
- **2018-01-16** Referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2018-02-07** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2018-03-06** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on JUD. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2018-03-07** Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2018-03-20** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 10. Noes 0.) (March 20). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2018-03-21** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2018-04-05** Read third time. Urgency clause adopted. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 70. Noes 0. Page 4527.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2018-04-05** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2018-04-19** Referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2018-06-13** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (June 12). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2018-06-14** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2018-06-25** Read third time. Urgency clause adopted. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 36. Noes 0. Page 4878.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2018-06-25** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
- **2018-06-29** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3 p.m.
- **2018-07-09** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2018-07-09** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 65, Statutes of 2018.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/3a30c098-fe1f-4212-bf4c-1f1f72c01513`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).