Co-Ownership: JT, TIC & Community
~12 min read · Separate joint tenancy’s four unities and survivorship from tenancy in common and community property.
When two or more people own together, the form of co-ownership decides everything at death: joint tenancy's survivorship versus tenancy in common's inheritable shares. The exam tests the four unities, severance, and the community-property overlay.
Tenancy in common
The default form. Each co-tenant holds an undivided fractional interest (equal or unequal — 60/40 works) with equal rights to possess the whole. Interests are freely transferable and, critically, inheritable: at death, the share passes by will or intestacy to heirs — never to the co-tenants. No survivorship. Any co-tenant may force division through a partition action.
- Undivided shares, possibly unequal
- Each share sells, mortgages, and DEVISES freely
- No survivorship — heirs inherit
- Partition ends the cotenancy
Joint tenancy and the four unities
Joint tenancy adds the right of survivorship: a deceased joint tenant's interest vanishes into the survivors, bypassing probate and heirs. Creation requires the four unities — PITT: Possession (equal right to the whole), Interest (equal shares), Time (acquired simultaneously), Title (same instrument) — plus express survivorship language in most states. Severance: a joint tenant who conveys their interest breaks the unities as to that share — the buyer holds as tenant in common with the remaining (still joint) tenants.
- Survivorship trumps the will
- PITT: possession, interest, time, title — all four required
- Unilateral conveyance severs into tenancy in common
- Last survivor owns alone in fee simple
Marital forms
Tenancy by the entirety (about half the states): joint tenancy for married couples only — survivorship plus protection from one spouse's individual creditors; neither spouse can sever alone; divorce converts it to tenancy in common. Community property (nine states): property acquired DURING marriage belongs half to each spouse regardless of title; separate property = owned before marriage or received by gift/inheritance. Community property carries no automatic survivorship (each spouse devises their half) unless the state's 'community property with right of survivorship' form is used.
Worked example
Three siblings — Ana, Ben, Cal — take title as joint tenants. Ben secretly deeds his third to his friend Dana. Later Ana dies, leaving a will giving 'all my property' to charity. Who owns the parcel now, and in what shares?
Ben's secret deed severed HIS third: Dana enters as a tenant in common holding 1/3, while Ana and Cal remain joint tenants WITH EACH OTHER as to the remaining 2/3. Ana's death then triggers survivorship on that joint 2/3 — her interest passes to Cal automatically, and her will is powerless over it (survivorship operates outside probate; charity takes nothing here). Final board: Cal holds 2/3 (as tenant in common now — no joint tenant remains alive with him), Dana holds 1/3. Every classic move in one chain: severance by conveyance, survivorship defeating a will, and the leftover cotenancy defaulting to tenancy in common.
Common exam pitfalls
Letting a will override survivorship.
A joint tenant's interest transfers at death by operation of law — the will never touches it.
Thinking severance destroys the whole joint tenancy.
It severs only the conveyed share; remaining joint tenants stay joint among themselves.
Equating community property with survivorship.
Each spouse may devise their community half — survivorship requires the special CPWROS form or a joint tenancy.
PITT builds it, a deed breaks it, death proves it: survivors take, heirs wait.
Recap
- Tenancy in common: unequal shares OK, inheritable, partition available
- Joint tenancy: four unities (PITT) + survivorship
- Conveyance severs the conveyed share into tenancy in common
- Tenancy by the entirety: spouses only, no unilateral severance, creditor shield
- Community property: marriage-acquired assets split 50/50; gifts/inheritance stay separate
- Survivorship operates outside the will and probate
Prove it: 10 questions on this topic
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