Delaware General Assembly

AN ACT TO AMEND CHAPTER 3, TITLE 25, DELAWARE CODE, RELATING TO TITLES AND CONVEYANCES.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Delaware:

Section 1. Chapter 3, Title 25, Delaware Code, is amended by adding thereto new sections 309 and 310 to read as follows:

(a) A married man may convey by deed, duly executed and acknowledged, real estate or any interest therein directly to his wife, and a married woman may convey by deed, duly executed and acknowledged, real estate or any interest therein directly to her husband, and every such conveyance of real estate or any interest therein, located in this state, heretofore or hereafter made, shall be valid and effective in law and equity to convey the grantor's title and interest therein and thereto, whether both the grantor and grantee or either, respectively, shall have resided at the time of such conveyance within or without this state, and notwithstanding the wife or the husband, respectively, did not or does not join therein.

(b) This section shall be construed as authorizing a conveyance of an interest in real property (a) by either spouse without the joinder of the other spouse to themselves as tenants by the entireties, (b) by husband and wife as tenants by the entireties to either husband or wife alone, and (c) by either tenant by the entireties alone to the other without the other joining in the deed.

A married man may relinquish or release to his wife his right of curtesy in any real estate whereof his wife is seized of an estate of inheritance, and a married woman may relinquish or release to her husband her right of dower in any real estate whereof her husband is seized of an estate of inheritance,

by deed duly executed and acknowledged, in the manner provided by law for deeds to be recorded, or by deed conveying such estate of inheritance in the real estate by the husband to the wife, or by the wife to the husband, wherein the husband's right of curtesy or the wife's right of dower is specifically relinquished or released and thereafter the real estate may be conveyed, encumbered, devised, or otherwise disposed of, and shall descend, free and clear of any such right or estate of curtesy or dower, but the real estate may descend to the husband or wife, as the case may be, in case of the death of the wife or husband intestate, in accordance with law, notwithstanding such relinquishment or release.