Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in New York

You each own an undivided 1/2 of the property, which will go to your heirs unless you own it jointly with right of survivorship.

Since the realty is located in NJ you should ask the question to a NJ lawyer. I would resubmit the question.

Mike.

Actually, it depends on the language in the ownership documents. There are two ways joint ownership can be registered between siblings; joint tenants with right of survivorship (usdually abbreviated JTROS) or tenants in common. If neither designation appears, there is a presumption of survivorship intended, but this can be overcome, but may require litigation, if not corrected now. If JTROS, the survivor takes all ownership upon the death of a sibling, even if the deceased sibling has a Will specifying something else. If ownership is as tenants in common, each sibling has an undivided one-half interest that can distributed by Will to whomever, a spouse, children, etc. I suggest confirring with a NJ attorney, to review the current form of ownership, correct an erroneous ownership designation (new documents, if required) and also to work out an agreemwnt binding on all heirs, as to what are the responsibilities of the owners and who pays what expenses, how they are shared and what happens if someone does not pay what they are responsible for. Not having this in place could lead to costly litigation down the road which could be resolved now, amicably and less costly. This is a response to an Internet question, and is not intended to be legal advice or as creating an attorney-client relationship.