Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Missouri

Re: Joint Ownership Of Property

You should ask an attorney to review the current state of the title (read the latest deed). The attorney can tell you exactly how the property is owned legally which in turn will tell you what, if anything, needs to be done. If you are all listed as joint tenants with rights of survivorship, that would normally result in the ownership of the property passing to the surviving owners when any one or more of the owners die. However, in Missouri, husbands and wives own property as tenants by-the-entirety which is a special form of joint tenancy, and may or may not effect the consequences of any one owner dieing while owning the property. Also, if the deed shows that you all or any combination of you own the property or your share of the property as tenants-in-common, then that can have the effect of entirely changing the consequences upon the death of any one or more owner(s). From the facts that you give us in your question, it is most likely that everything is set up the way you want it to be, but to be sure you should have an attorney review it and advise you. The cost will be very minimal. There is absolutely no reason to deal with a title company in this particular situation.

Re: Joint Ownership Of Property

The question you have to answer first is how is the property titled? Determining that will tell you whether you have to do anything. I you all are joint tenants with rights of survivorship, you all have equal ownership of the whole property. When any one owner passes away, the others simply remain equal owners of the whole. If you are all tenants in common, you all own a quarter share of the property. In this case as each owner passes, thier share could be passed by a will or beneficiary deed or such.

Once you determine the type of "joint ownership" you should consult an attorney to advise as to the effect of a given ownership form. Title companies are not authorized to tell you what your legal rights are.