Question

Martha and George are getting up there in years. George heard from his barber that it is a good idea to own your home as “joint tenants”. He brings this up to Martha who agrees and they go to their son, who is a lawyer, to draft the paperwork. Good timing, because 6 months later, George is killed in battle, leaving Martha a widow. With regard to their home, which will be the most likely result of their planning and George’s untimely demise?

a.      Martha owns only half the house and the other half is owned by her son.

b.     Martha owns the whole house and can do what she wants with it

c.      The IRS gets the house because Martha has no money to pay the estate tax bill

d.     Martha will burn the house down so no one else can live in it.

Answer 1

ANS. b ( Martha owns the whole house and cam do what she wants with it)

Joint tenancy describes that the property is owned by more than one person at a time.The given case above is a joint tenancy between married persons, so many jurisdictions refers the joint tenancy as joint tenancy with right of  survivorship.

It implies that it is the legal right of survivor of the persons having joint interest in the property to take the interest of person who is died.Therefore Martha gets the property being survivor of the persons having joint interest in the property.

The above answer may change based on law of some jurisdictions