Also known as: joint tenants · JT
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A co-owner of real or personal property held in joint tenancy who enjoys the right of survivorship. Each joint tenant holds an undivided interest in the whole estate and may unilaterally sever the tenancy by conveyance, subject to statutory rules governing partition, leases, divorce, and killings.
June Jiang and John Jones held farmland as joint tenants. When June sought partition, the court found that zoning rules rendered separate parcels unbuildable. The court therefore ordered a judicial sale and division of proceeds rather than physical division.
Jonathan Jaffe and his spouse held a brokerage account as joint tenants. Upon Jonathan's death the surviving spouse's fractional interest was valued immediately before death for elective-share purposes under the probate code.
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Javier Jimenez, a joint tenant, leased his interest in commercial property to Jennings Forge. When Javier died before the lease term ended, the surviving joint tenant took the property free of the lease.
Jorge Juarez and his spouse held their home as joint tenants with right of survivorship. After their divorce the probate code automatically converted their interests into equal tenancies in common, so the former spouse's share passed by will rather than survivorship.
Jessica Jacobs and her husband held their residence as joint tenants. A judgment creditor of Jessica alone could not force a sale of the property because the survivorship feature protected the couple's unified interest.
Jensen Farms was held by two joint tenants. One conveyed her undivided interest to herself as tenant in common, destroying the right of survivorship and leaving each owner with a severable half interest.
No. In jurisdictions following the modern rule, a lease grants the lessee only the rights of occupancy held by the leasing joint tenant. The lease terminates upon the lessor's death and does not bind the surviving joint tenants.
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Under the Uniform Probate Code, divorce automatically severs the joint tenancy into equal tenancies in common unless an express court order, contract, or governing instrument provides otherwise.
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Partition in kind is preferred, but a court may order sale when physical division is impossible or inequitable because of the land's characteristics or external constraints such as zoning that would render separate parcels unusable.
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The killing severs the joint tenancy, converting the interests into equal tenancies in common so the killer cannot take by survivorship.
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…choose to pool only part of their earnings and property, to form a partnership or joint venture, or to hold property acquired as joint tenants or tenants in common, or agree to any other such arrangement. (See generally Weitzman, Legal Regulation of Marriage: Tradition and Change (1974) 62 Cal.L.Rev. 1169.) [^maj-11]: We note…