Got a call from a gentleman wanted to sell his land. Found out it is deeded to 2 people. The other partner is deceased, how do you go about purchasing? Do I have to hire a lawyer and track down his/her heirs?
@burgerking089 any idea how the two people held title together? Was it as joint tenants, tenants in common, or something else?
The way they hold title has a lot to do with who does (or doesn’t) need to sign the deed when transferring ownership and one of them has died.
If the deed doesn’t explicitly state how they’re holding title, most states will just default to a certain type of ownership, so you could find that out and go from there.
@burgerking089 this is kinda getting into attorney territory, so I can’t say for sure… but I think that’s correct.
I know Joint Tenants With Full Rights of Survivorship is the kind where all the conveyance rights automatically pass to the surviving owner… but I believe Joint Tenancy does this as well.
According to this article, the main difference is that with normal Joint Tenancy, the “rights of survivorship” can be terminated if one of the two parties transfers their ownership to someone else, but with JTWROS, the rights of survivorship cannot be terminated this way.
Again, I’m no attorney, so don’t take my word for it, but what I was able to find on it.