How to Change Legal Title From Joint Tenancy to Tenancy by the Entirety
Based on the English common laws of property ownership, state laws allow one or more owners to own property. Property owned by two or more owners entail joint ownership rights established by state laws. In most states, two or more owners can own property jointly with or without survivorship rights, which give each owner an indivisible and inalienable right to own property entirely when one joint owner dies. Joint tenants who own property jointly may later marry one another. If they do, in many states, their joint survivorship rights as joint tenants automatically convert their ownership to a joint tenancy as tenants by the entirety.
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Instructions
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Check your state's law to determine whether you need to change your deed from a joint tenancy to a tenancy between spouses as tenants by the entirety. Tenants by the entirety are simply spouses who own property as joint tenants.
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Find an attorney who specializes in property laws. You can obtain a referral from your local bar association. Although you can try to draft a new deed without an attorney, it is best to do it with the assistance of an attorney specializing in property law.
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Check your state's statutory code. Not all states recognize a deed between husband and wife as tenants by the entirety. In these states, you may leave your deed naming you and your spouse as joint tenants with a right of survivorship.
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Sign your new deed jointly with your spouse as "grantors" granting your ownership rights as "tenants by the entirety with a right of survivorship" to you and your spouse as grantees.
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Record your new deed in your local register of deeds office, land records division or circuit court. Your attorney should take care of this on your behalf. Although state laws refer to their land records clerks as registers of deeds or land record clerks, they all perform the same administrative and legal functions.
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Tips & Warnings
If your house is secured by a lender through a mortgage, you need to obtain consent from your lender to convert your ownership to a tenancy by the entirety. Since joint tenancies and tenancies by the entirety provide the same rights of survivorship, your lender will probably consent to the new arrangement.
You may have to pay a filing fee to record your new deed.
