Schuetz

A Joint Tenancy is where you and another person co-own or cohabitate the same property. Joint Tenancy also refers to where a married couple owns a home or property together. You might also want to know that a Joint Tenancy can have more than two people who own the property. The only stipulation to this is that no matter how many people own the property, they all own equal parts. To keep this legal and fair, all owners must share all responsibilities and time in the property. Also, if one of the owners of the Joint Property pass away, the other owners spilt the property evenly. This cannot change even if a will states otherwise.

One major flaw in this concept is that one of the owners, even a spouse, can sell their part of the property without anyones knowledge. This means he/she can sell his/her part to who ever he/she chooses and you won't find out about it until after the deed is done. Another draw back to Joint Tenancy is that if one spouse has poor credit and debtors are trying to collect, using the property, it can leak over onto the other person's share. However, you can get a Homestead Exemption to protect this from happening, but must be filed before hand.

To those who think of using Joint Tenancy to avoid Probate Courts, dont think you can end up owning the property at all if the person you now co-own it with decides to sell. He/she will have to give you your half of the sale proceeds. However, you will still be without that property. If there is a bank account involved and it is two children who share the property and the bank account, one can withdraw the money from the account, leaving the bank with out any liability, and the other child without the funds.

A joint tenancy can overrule a will, and you need to be careful when drawing yours up. The property will revert to who ever is still alive or both if it is passed down to the children.

Do not use Joint Tenancy to avoid the probate courts you can and have alternative means. One way is to set up a Totten Trust with your bank. Doing this, you give the owner of the account the trustee status and in turn they have all control until the pass on. Once the current owner passes on it then goes to the beneficiary.

You can use this type of trust for your home as well. However, you need to make sure you have your attorney draw up this and go through all the steps to make it legal.

After discussing all of this, I think we need to discuss the rights and responsibilities of the Joint Tenancy once more. Each co-owner or tenant has the right to all of the property. If you are excluded from the other part of the property, you can file an Ouster with the courts requesting that all the property reverts to you. Each tenant has the rights to all accounting and profits made from the property. Each tenant is responsible for the cost of the property including general maintenance, taxes and mortgages. However, all co-owners are not responsible for any upgrades or improvements of the property.

You might want to know, though, that if you make the upgrades and it increases the profits made, the co-owner or Joint Tenant is entitled to the profits. Now if the other person improves the property but the profits from the property fall, you are still allowed your original share. Also, if one of the Joint Tenants gets a mortgage on the property, it is only for their share and if the loan falls through, the first person has the right to purchase the loan amount.