Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Grand Deed

There can be great danger in holding title to real property as joint tenants if you're unrelated in the eyes of the law. One or the other person might try to dispose of the property without letting the other party know. It would be wise to speak with a real estate attorney to correct the way title for the property is held.

Re: Grand Deed

If you're not married, you cannot have community property. You have a garden-variety joint tenancy. Not only do you not need to use a "strawman" to sever the joint tenancy and convert it into a tenancy in common, the process does not rely upon decisions in a few courts; it is statewide law written into our statutes. See Civil Code section 683.2. The statute also provides that either joint tenant can sever the joint tenancy (and turn it into a tenancy in common, which doesn't have the right of survivorship) without the permission or even the knowledge of the other.

Severing the joint tenancy should not affect your current financing.

As to executing a deed that alters the percentage ownerships - which would be 50-50 between two joint tenants but can be any percentage as between tenants in common - you can do this too, but writing the deed and getting advice about possible tax consequences (income and property tax) really requires individualized professional advice.

Goint back to the time two years ago when you refinanced and added your boyfriend's name to the title - did you have a written agreement, did he pay anything, did you intend to make a gift of a half interest? Are you aware of the tax impacts of that deal?

Re: Grand Deed

Leslie,

If you are not married, your property is not community property. California abolished common law marriage over 100 years ago, and this response assumes that you have not entered into a Marvin type agreement. (Named after Lee Marvin.)

Unfortunately, you took title as joint tenants, so you have a joint tenancy. Joint tenancy carries with it a right of survivorship. If you were killed tomorrow in an automobile accident, your boyfriend would own the entire property. Joint tenancy occurs by operation of law, outside of probate.

If you re-deed the property to yourselves, you simply become tenants in common. This severs the joint tenancy. At common law, this required a straw person, but some courts have done away with this requirement. (Riddle v. Harmon (1980) 102 Cal. App. 3d 524.)

If you want to get rid of the survivorship, you will both have to execute a deed from yourselves as joint tenants to yourselves as tenants in common. This means that you will both have an undivided property interest in the real property, but will not have the right of survivorship.

Feel free to e-mail me with any follow up questions that are not addressed here.

Very truly yours,