The full explanation
There is generally no right of survivorship: when an owner dies, that share goes to whoever the owner chose in a will, not to the other owners. Each owner can sell or leave their share. In Arizona and Florida, when a deed puts property in the names of two or more people and says nothing else, the law treats it as a tenancy in common, with exceptions such as certain deeds between spouses.
An example
Three siblings own a house as tenants in common, each with a one-third share. One of them leaves his share to his wife in his will; the other two keep their shares.
You will see it in…
- The deed, in the phrase “tenants in common”
- An inheritance that leaves several relatives as owners
- A partition lawsuit, when the owners cannot agree
