Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
I am on a quitclaim deed, dated 2002, with 2 others (step mother and brother) as joint tenants WROS (The step mother quit claimed to herself, my brother and I).
In 2008, the step mother signed a quitclaim deed to my brother.
? Am I 50/50% with my brother as joint tenants WROS OR 66/33% OR now tenants in common 66/33%.
Thank you.
3 Answers from Attorneys
One cannot be positive, but it seems your are a co-equal owner with your brother as joint tenants. Your stepmother withdrew from the joint tenancy ownership. If she simply said she was giving up any interest she had, then the three equal pieces of the pie seem to be reduced to two equal pieces. But it could be argued that her intent was to give a 1/3rd interest to your brother and that by doing so she ended the joint tenancy situation and created tenants in common and gave your brother a 1/3 interest in the property. It would probably be best to find out what your stepmother intended and to make changess consistent with that.
Mr. Shers is wrong on this one. Intent is not relevant to the legal ownership of the property, though if the legal effect is not what she intended, he is right that some new deeds should be drafted to effectuate the intent. The legal effect of what she did was to create a 66/33 tenancy in common.
It is now a tenancy in common. The deed from her to your brother "severed" the joint tenancy.
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