Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Pennsylvania

Re: real estate distribution for a joint owned unmarried man & woman with childr

Their are a few options. One would involve estate planning. A set of wills, or a trust could deal with the issue. The other possibility is to change the type of tenancy in the deed. You should have an attorney review the deed and figure out which of these two options makes better sense. If I can be of assistance, my number is 800/443-5084.

Re: real estate distribution for a joint owned unmarried man & woman with childr

How did you take title? If you took title as "joint tenants with right of survivorship", the survivor would automatically own the entire property on the death of the first of you. If you want to each leave your interest in the house to your respective children, you should change the form of title to "tenants in common".

You should have a co-owners' agreement that spells out your respective rights and obligations, such as: (1) who pays what, (2) what happens if one does not pay; (3) what happens if one party wants out of the transaction; (4) what rights, if any, will the parties have to rent out the place if one wants out; (5) what if one wants to sell and the other does not, etc.

In addition, it is very important that you each have a will that directs where your separate estates should go (for example, to your respective children rather than to each other).

Both the will and the co-owners' agreement can provide for the survivor to live in the house for a certain period after the first person dies.

You should seek assistance from a real estate lawyer to help cover all of the issues.