Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

If the property is held in joint tenancy between the girlfriend and your grandfather, then upon your grandfather's death, the girlfriend owns 100% outright.

You should probably check out the facts yourself (it's not that difficult) as to how title to the rental property was held, but if it was indeed owned in joint tenancy, Ms. Kao is correct. Full title vests in the other joint tenant when one dies, without regard to wills, trusts, marriage, etc.

I suggest having an attorney review the title documents, before you give up. If the property was held in joint tenancy at the time of your father's death, she would own the property outright by right of survivorship. You raise an issue, however, that may be an exception. You state that the girlfriend conveyed her interest to a trust. When property held in joint tenancy is transferred directly to a revocable inter vivos trust, the conveyance terminates the joint tenancy. (Civ. Code, � 683.2( subd. a)(1).) This usually means that they conveyed it to a trustee, who is a third person. If the joint tenancy was severed by her conveyance into trust, then she and your father would have become tenants in common. At that point, your father's heirs would have a 50% interest in the real property, and she would have a 50% interest.