Also known as: joint tenancy with right of survivorship · JTWROS · joint tenancy · right of survivorship
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A concurrent estate in which two or more persons hold equal undivided interests in property with the right of survivorship. Upon the death of one tenant the surviving tenant or tenants automatically succeed to the deceased tenant's share by operation of law.
Mackenzie conveyed a suburban laboratory to Jerome Jackson and his fiancée Spencer as husband and wife together with their issue entering the pharmaceutical field. At delivery the couple was engaged but not yet married. The attempted joint tenancy in the conditional estate failed because the grantees did not satisfy the marital-unit requirement at the time of conveyance.
Javier Jimenez and his wife held their home as joint tenants with right of survivorship. While divorce proceedings were pending Javier executed a will leaving his interest to a third party. Javier died before the divorce was final. Title passed automatically to his surviving spouse by operation of law.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Jonathan Jaffe died owning a residence in joint tenancy with right of survivorship with his surviving spouse. The probate court included the surviving spouse's fractional interest in the joint tenancy property when calculating the augmented estate for elective-share purposes.
Jacob Jennings and Jeffrey Jha purchased training equipment together for a seasonal sports camp and shared net proceeds. The joint acquisition and profit sharing did not by itself create a partnership because the statute provides that joint tenancy or part ownership alone does not establish partnership status.
A jurisdiction permitted joint tenancies in fee-simple-conditional estates only when the conveyance ran to two persons who were or might become husband and wife and their issue. Justin Jarvis and his wife received such a conveyance. The joint tenancy form was therefore valid under the jurisdiction's allowance rule.
Jaffe Securities and Jarvis Aviation held commercial property as joint tenants with right of survivorship. Jaffe Securities leased its interest to a startup for five years. Jaffe Securities' principal died before the lease expired. The surviving tenant took the entire property free of the lease.
A will cannot dispose of property held in joint tenancy with right of survivorship. Title passes automatically to the surviving joint tenant by operation of law upon the death of the other tenant.
Under the modern approach a lease by one joint tenant does not sever the joint tenancy. The lessee acquires only the rights the leasing tenant possessed. When the leasing tenant dies the lease extinguishes along with that tenant's interest and the surviving tenant takes free of the lease.
Divorce severs the joint tenancy with right of survivorship and converts the interests into a tenancy in common unless a court order or governing instrument expressly preserves survivorship. The former spouses then each hold an undivided one-half interest subject to partition.
If clear and convincing evidence does not establish that one joint tenant survived the other by 120 hours, each is deemed to have predeceased the other. The property passes one-half through each estate rather than entirely to either survivor.
…debtor spouse in the estate may be sold or levied upon for his or her separate debts, subject to the other spouse’s contingent right of survivorship. Pope v. McBride , 207 Ark. 940, 184 S.W.2d 259 (1945); King v. Greene , 30 N.J. 395, 153 A.2d 49 (1959); Hiles v. Fisher , 144 N.Y. 306, 39 N.E. 337 (1895); Brownley v. Lincoln…