Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in North Carolina

It depends on how the property is owned. Assuming the 2 people own as tenants in common and one dies, the survivor only owns 1/2 the property. The heirs of the dead person own the other 1/2. In such case, this is a mess and the person who wants the property should buy out the share of the other(s). If the land is owned by the 2 people as joint tenants with right of survivorship then the land automatically passes at death to the survivor. If the survivor is not on the mortgage, they still inherit the land subject to the mortgage, which means that they keep paying the mortgage if they want to keep the land unless the will directs otherwise and provides for the mortgage to be satisfied out of other assets.

However, your facts suggest that only 1 person is on the deed. I am not sure why the person whose name is not on the deed would be on the mortgage. Ususally, it is the other way around. In that case, if only one person owns the land it will pass at his/her death to the heirs, either as per the will or the intestacy laws if there is no will. Then you have a situation where the survivor is on the mortgage but may not inherit the land. The way around this is to either get added to the deed (ask the mortgage lender about this) or make sure that the person whose name is on the land has a will leaving the land to the other person.