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Joint tenants with right of survivorship (or JTWROS) is a form of property ownership in common law legal systems where more than one person has ownership of property. Joint tenants own, jointly, the whole of the real property without any distinction between them regarding share of ownership. On the death of one of the tenants, the whole of the property passes to remaining tenant(s); this is the "right of survivorship." The deceased tenant's property interest simply evaporates by operation of law, and cannot be inherited by his heirs (which means it never goes through probate). Under this type of ownership, the last person living takes all.
However, creditors' claims against the deceased tenant's estate may, under certain circumstances, be satisfied by the portion of ownership previously owned by the deceased, but now owned by the survivor or survivors. In other words, the deceased's liabilities can sometimes remain attached to the property.
This form of ownership is common between husband and wife, and parent and child, and in any other situation where parties want absolute ownership to immediately pass to the survivor. For bank and brokerage accounts held in this fashion, the acronym JTWROS is commonly appended to the account name as evidence of the owners' intent.
For an alternative form of ownership, see tenants in common.
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