Also known as: unity requirements · four unities · unity of time · unity of title · unity of interest · unity of possession · joint tenancy unities
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
The four common-law conditions of time, title, interest, and possession that must coincide for a conveyance to create a joint tenancy. Satisfaction of the unities produces the right of survivorship that distinguishes joint tenancy from tenancy in common.
Umar Usmani received a deed conveying Blackacre to himself and his sister as joint tenants with right of survivorship. Umar had acquired his share by inheritance six months earlier. A creditor later sought to levy on Umar's interest. The court held the unities were absent so no joint tenancy arose and the interest passed by will.
Uriah Urban and his brother took title to Greenacre by the same deed executed at the same closing, each acquiring an undivided one-half interest with equal possession rights. After Uriah died his heirs claimed the property. The court found all four unities satisfied and upheld the surviving brother's right of survivorship.
Uriel Urban and his wife received a deed conveying land to them as husband and wife with language creating a marital estate. The jurisdiction recognizes tenancy by the entirety. A creditor later attempted to attach Uriel's supposed one-half interest. The court held that the spouses took by the entirety because the conveyance satisfied the unities between the married couple, preventing unilateral creditor levy.
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Ulysses Usher and his sister held land as joint tenants. Ulysses executed a deed conveying his interest to himself as tenant in common. Upon his death his will attempted to devise that interest. The court examined whether the deed had broken the unities of time and title, converting the estate to a tenancy in common that could pass by will.
Uliana Ustinova and her brother held mineral land as joint tenants. She alone leased the property for oil and gas development. After her death the lessee continued operations. Her brother sued to eject the lessee. The court determined that the lease had not severed the unities, so the right of survivorship extinguished the lessee's rights upon Uliana's death.
The four unities are time, title, interest, and possession. All joint tenants must acquire their interests at the same moment, by the same instrument, in identical shares, and with equal rights to possess the whole property.
Yes. When any unity is missing the conveyance creates a tenancy in common instead. Modern statutes sometimes relax the strict common-law test, but the absence of the unities still defeats survivorship unless the statute expressly provides otherwise.
Courts treat the spouses as taking the present estate by the entirety when the jurisdiction recognizes that form. The reference to issue creates only a future interest and does not destroy the unities between the husband and wife.
…law rule that four unities are essential to an estate in joint tenancy: unity of interest, unity of time, unity of title, and unity of possession. (See Hammond v. McArthur (1947) 30 Cal.2d 512, 514 [183 P.2d 1]; McDonald v. Morley (1940) 15 Cal.2d 409, 412 [101 P.2d 690, 129 A.L.R. 810]; 2 Blackstone, Commentaries 180-182.) The…