Also known as: joint tenant by the entirety · tenants by the entirety · tenant by the entirety · tenancy by the entirety · tenants by entirety
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A concurrent estate in land held by a married couple treated as a single legal person. The estate features an indestructible right of survivorship and bars one spouse from unilaterally alienating or encumbering the property.
Jamal Jefferson and his wife held their home as joint tenants by the entirety. While divorce proceedings were pending Jamal executed a will leaving the home to his brother. Jamal died before the divorce became final. Title passed automatically to his wife by operation of law.
Jason Jung conveyed a warehouse to his daughter Joy Jiang and her husband Jacob Jennings together with their bodily heirs. The jurisdiction recognizes both conditional fees and tenancies by the entirety. Joy and Jacob hold the present conditional fee as joint tenants by the entirety.
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June Jiang and her husband received a grant of land in a jurisdiction that permits tenancies by the entirety. The deed named them as husband and wife and included their issue. The conveyance validly created a tenancy by the entirety under the jurisdiction's allowance provision.
Jessica Jacobs and her husband held a conditional fee as joint tenants by the entirety. One spouse sought to compel partition. The court applied the same partition power that applies to fee simple absolute owners holding in the same concurrent form.
Jacobs Shipping conveyed a research facility to a married couple and their issue as joint tenants by the entirety in a jurisdiction recognizing fee tails. After disagreement one spouse petitioned for partition. The court measured the partition power by reference to fee simple absolute owners in the same form.
A married couple held a laboratory as joint tenants by the entirety. After divorce one former spouse sought partition by sale. The court treated the interests as converted to a tenancy in common subject to ordinary partition rules.
A will cannot dispose of property held as joint tenants by the entirety. Title passes by operation of law to the surviving spouse when the tenancy remains intact at death.
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The jurisdiction must allow tenancies by the entirety. The conveyance must run to two persons who are husband and wife and must also include their issue or a designated class of issue.
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Each concurrent owner possesses the same power to compel partition that an owner of a fee simple absolute held in the identical concurrent form would possess in that state.
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Divorce destroys the marital unity required for the tenancy by the entirety and converts the interests into a tenancy in common that is freely partitionable.
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…does not change status of property held by tenancy by entirety); Bernatavicius v. Bernatavicius , 259 Mass. 486, 489 (1927) (“A tenancy by the entirety . . . cannot continue after the tenants have become divorced and thus have ended the legal relationship to each other, which constitutes the essence of that tenancy”). [^maj-22]: That is…