Sanity check, can you leave your half of a jointly owned house in a will
I think the answer is no and I want someone to tell me I have this right before I build a page of my index on it.
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Best answer
You have it right, and the reasoning matters more than the answer because it generalises.
A joint tenancy needs four unities, title, time, interest and possession. Survivorship is what having all four gets you. At the moment of death survivorship has already operated, so the share has gone before the will speaks and there is nothing left to give. The will does not fail, it just has no subject matter.
Which also tells you what a will cannot do. It cannot sever. Severing needs a unity destroyed while you are alive. Transfer your interest, agree to hold differently, or a course of dealing between you inconsistent with holding jointly.
thank you, and the "no subject matter" framing is better than what I had written down
Course of dealing is the one I would put a note beside. Vaguest of the three and it is what a pattern reaches for when it wants severance without anybody signing anything. Separate accounts, one party treating the place as theirs.
four unities on one line, severance right under it. two lines, done
does a mortgage by one of them sever it?
Depends on the system and I would not guess under time pressure. Under land titles the usual answer is no, a charge does not sever because it is not a transfer of the estate. Check your own materials rather than my word on that one.
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