Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

The parent would have to give a gift of the separate property to themselves and their child as joint tenants. Normally, it is not a good idea to give property to a child while you still use that property.

At common law, it required a strawperson. A strawperson was a third person, who was supposed to deed the property to the joint tenants.

California has pretty much abolished the need for a strawperson, when creating a joint tenancy. "At common law, one could not create a joint tenancy in himself and another by a direct conveyance. It was necessary for joint tenants to acquire their interests at the same time (unity of time) and by the same conveyancing instrument (unity of title). So, in order to create a valid joint tenancy where one of the proposed joint tenants already owned an interest in the property, it was first necessary to convey the property to a disinterested third person, a 'strawman,' who then conveyed the title to the ultimate grantees as joint tenants. This remains the prevailing practice in some jurisdictions. Other states, including California, have disregarded this application of the unities requirement 'as one of the obsolete `subtle and arbitrary distinctions and niceties of the feudal common law,' [and allow the creation of a valid joint tenancy without the use of a strawman]. (4A Powell on Real Property (1979) [�] 616, p. 670, citation omitted.)" (Quoted from Riddle v. Harmon (1980) 102 Cal.App.3d 524, 527.)

California became a pioneer in allowing the creation of a joint tenancy by direct transfer. Under authority of Civil Code section 683, a joint tenancy conveyance may be made from a "sole owner to himself and others," or from joint owners to themselves and others as specified in the code. You can read that code section here: http://law.onecle.com/california/civil/683.html

With that said, I would certainly strongly advise you to consult with a competent estate planning attorney. I just finished a trial yesterday where a party engaged in his own estate planning, in an attempt to save himself legal fees. He ended up losing $250,000.00.

The tenants are not required to acquire the property at the same time, they are required to acquire their joint tenancy at the same time. So as the other attorneys have mentioned, a deed from Parent as sole owner to Parent and Child as Joint Tenants would create a valid joint tenancy. As the other attorneys have also said, this is almost invariably a really bad idea from a tax standpoint. Consult an attorney in person.