Joint ownership (or to use the technical term, joint tenancy) of real property affords the best protection in the event of death. If the home is jointly owned, the surviving partner owns the whole property at the moment of his or her lover's death. By contrast, if the property is co-owned (tenants in common), the family of the person who died will become the owners of one half of the home unless a will provides otherwise. Even if there is a will, the family may try to contest it. Many a bereaved partner has lost both lover and home because of failure to provide adequate protection in a will. Joint tenancy with the right of survivorship removes that problem.
Joint tenancy with the right of survivorship will also give the deceased's personal property to the survivor. The property does not descend to heirs, pass under a will or go through the probate process. Jointly owning means that both persons own the property and have special access to it. For example, a joint bank account allows either co-owner to take money out of the account at any time regardless of how much each contributed. There was a brief period of confusion about the validity of joint bank accounts with right of survivorship after the case of In re Estate of Heffner, 99 N.C. App. 327, 392 S.E.2d 770 (1990). However, the legislature amended N.C.G.S. § 41-2 and related laws to make it clear that joint tenancy is valid, and banks and title insurance companies routinely approve the concept these days. Particular care should be taken in creating joint ownership of land, since special technical requirements of wording must be met.
North Carolina's Division of Motor Vehicles recognizes joint tenancy on the car title. If the title says "John Doe and Jack Roe JTWROS", it means that John and Jack own the car as joint tenants with right of survivorship.
Anyone who owns property jointly with another person should be careful to keep good records about whose money was used to pay for the property and any improvements. The tax authorities will assume that the person who dies first contributed all of the money for property owned in a joint tenancy unless the survivor can prove otherwise.
If both partners have contributed to the purchase of the home, the deed can include a provision that states that both people have contributed to the purchase and intend to share equally in the payments and cost of repairs. One easy method of establishing the contribution of both partners is to open a joint bank account expressly for the home and to make all home related payments from this account.