Joint tenancy
Joint tenancy is co-ownership in which each holder has an equal undivided interest and a right of survivorship.
When one dies, their interest passes automatically to the survivors. It does not go through probate and it does not pass under a will.
It comes from the deed#
Joint tenancy is created by the vesting language — typically naming the parties as joint tenants with right of survivorship.
It is not presumed. A deed simply naming two people may create a tenancy in common instead, and the difference only becomes apparent when one of them dies.
That single line of drafting is the origin of an enormous amount of Minnesota tangled title. Two people buy a house believing the survivor will simply keep it. One dies. The deed said tenants in common. The deceased's share passes under their will or by intestacy, and the survivor now co-owns their own home with somebody else's heirs.
What it does well#
Avoids probate for that property. The survivor records evidence of the death and holds the whole.
Simple and cheap. No trust to create, no ongoing administration.
Immediate. No waiting period, no court.
For a married couple buying a home together, it is usually exactly right.
What it does badly#
It can be severed without the other owner knowing. A joint tenant can generally convey their interest, and doing so severs the joint tenancy as to that share — converting it to a tenancy in common and destroying the survivorship the other owner was relying on.
It exposes the property to a co-owner's creditors. A judgment against one joint tenant can attach to their interest.
It overrides a will. The survivorship takes the property regardless of what either owner's will says, which produces unintended outcomes in blended families.
Adding a child creates one now. A parent adding a child as a joint tenant has transferred a present interest immediately — exposing the property to the child's creditors and divorce, potentially triggering the due-on-sale clause, and forfeiting the step-up in basis the child would have received by inheriting.
The better tool for that last case#
Where the intention is to pass a house on death rather than share it now, a transfer on death deed under Minn. Stat. 507.071 does it properly.
It conveys nothing during life, the owner keeps full control and can revoke it, the beneficiary's creditors cannot reach it, and it passes outside probate on death.
It has to be recorded before death, and it cannot be overridden by a will.
Check your own deed#
It takes five minutes and it is worth doing.
Find the vesting language and confirm it says what you assumed. Where two people own a home and the deed does not create survivorship, fixing that now is a corrective deed. Fixing it after a death is a probate.