Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Mississippi

house built on joint tenant land

This is complicated and I could not find any cases where a home was built on preowned land.

Owners of land are Jon and Bob; with right of surviorship. Years later, Jon builds a house with mortgage onto the land. How much interest does Bob now have? If Bob has interest in half the land and now the house; has Jon essentially given a gift to Bob because of the improvements? After all Bob had no expenditures towards the house but has benefits of the gain. Now if Bob dies, will this be a return of the gift or will Jon have to pay taxes on half the house that Jon already spent money on to build? It seems that Jon already experienced a loss because of building a house and having interest in only half its value? Maybe someone can direct me to as the proper way to dissect this issue.


Asked on 1/25/07, 12:24 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Jan Butler Jan R. Butler

Re: house built on joint tenant land

The "right of survivorship" controls in this situation. The survivor gets it all. If the person who mortgaged the property is the one who dies and the mortgage is not paid off, the lender loses if joint owner did not sign the deed of trust. There is no income to survivor but survivor's basis is increase by 1/2 of the value of the land with improvements, thanks to the way our inheritance taxes work.

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Answered on 1/25/07, 3:06 pm


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