California Probate Joint Tenants Question

[David Oldenburg]

I have a client who has been on title since 2006 with 2 other people. One of them recently passed away, so the two are left.  This leaves the remaining 2 holding title 50/50.  My client wants to sell the home and split the proceeds, but the other person on title does not.  Theey keep saying that the property was mentioned in a Will, and that they need to wait etc... While I have no experience in the laws behind Wills and Probate, I do know that the person who passed away had no debt and no obligations.  I have suggested they hire an attorney since they want to sell, and the other person does not.   Does anyone know how this can be handled quickly, since the are not communicating and able to handle this on their own?

[Rick H.]

Absent evidence to the contrary, the joint tenancy would have to gave been broken during the lifetime of the decedent and then you'd have a TIC as to the Decedent's 33.33% interest and a JT as to the two remaining joint tenant for the other 66.667%

Fortunately, that probably did not occur.

Now, what you'll have is, as @Shawn Hudson describes, is two JT's with undivided! equal interests, however unless the joint tenancy is broken unilaterally by either party.

Upon terminating the joint tenancy, the moving party will have to file a partition action. That's about $35-50K per side on average. 

Other than girding the other party to sell, the TIC owner can sell their fractional interest or swap for some other consideration.

Sound ugly? Yep. Could be