Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Pennsylvania

State law question.

It is a state law question, so you need someone in your own state. BUT I will make a few comments about how laws work in Mass.

1. "Joint" ownership, by default, implies "with rights of survivorship" -- one dies, the other takes all (subject to federal estate tax), no questions asked, and a will does not control or impact that.

2. The act of marriage will not (unlike a will revoked by operation of law) change a deed. In Mass., tenancy by the entirety is available only to married couples, differs legally from other joint tenancies, but it must be elected and entitled that way on the deed or it isn't that kind of ownership.

So if you bought together unmarried, you would not have that title ever. But you could definitely and probably would have the survivorship feature -- again, here in Mass.

creating "joint" tenancy

If the two unmarried owners took title as "joint tenants with right of survivorship" they already own is so that if one dies, the other will automatically become the sole owner. If they want to create a tenancy by the entireties (which serves the same function but is available only to married couples), they must sign a deed from themselves TO themselves as husband and wife. This tenancy can only be created at the time the deed is received and the new owners must be married at that time.