Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in New York

You can either be tenants in common which means you each own a percentage of the house, or you can own the house as joint tenants with rights of survivorship, but not both. If you own the house JTWROS, then yes, if one of you dies the house belongs to the survivor. This is not true if you are joint tenants in common. Then each of you owns part of the house, and that is not necessarily half.

If title to the house is held by you and your partner as joint tenants with rights of survivorship, then the survivor takes title to the entire property upon the death of one of the tenants. However, tenants in common do not have survivor rights.