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Does Your Deed Reflect Your Intentions?
If you thought “tenants” only meant your cousin renting your spare room and forgetting to buy toilet paper—welcome to the wild world of real estate law! In North Carolina, owning property with someone else comes with options. Specifically, you can own it as Tenants in Common (TIC) or Joint Tenants with Right of Survivorship (JTWROS). And no, those aren’t indie bands from Asheville—though they do sound like it.
Tenants in Common is the real estate version of “you do you.” Each person owns a separate share, which can be unequal (60/40, 80/20, or even 99/1 if one person really went all-in). You can sell your share, leave it to your pet parrot in a will, or use it as collateral for your dreams of opening a kombucha truck. When one TIC owner dies, their share doesn’t automatically go to the other owners—it goes wherever the will (or state intestacy laws) says it should.
Now, Joint Tenants with Right of Survivorship? That’s more of a ride-or-die situation. Everyone owns an equal share of the whole thing, and when one person dies, their share goes straight to the surviving owners—automatically. No probate. No drama. Just a seamless handoff like a relay race, but with legal documents and slightly more anxiety.
In North Carolina, here’s the kicker: if you don’t specifically say you want Right of Survivorship, the state defaults to Tenants in Common. So unless your deed says something like “as joint tenants with right of survivorship and not as tenants in common” (yes, it’s that wordy), congratulations—you’re now accidental real estate co-owners with zero survivorship perks.
So, whether you’re buying a mountain cabin with your best friend, co-owning your first home with a partner, or splitting land with your three brothers who still argue about who broke the lawnmower in 1994, it pays to know the difference. In real estate, as in life, clarity is everything—especially when the law doesn’t come with a “just kidding” button.
