{"id":11268,"date":"2019-02-27T16:29:21","date_gmt":"2019-02-27T16:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hammerle.com\/?p=11268"},"modified":"2020-02-19T13:10:37","modified_gmt":"2020-02-19T19:10:37","slug":"deed-for-death-texas-twist-for-survivors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hammerle.com\/legaltalk\/real-estate\/deed-for-death-texas-twist-for-survivors\/","title":{"rendered":"Deed for Death: Texas Twist for Survivors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas real estate law can be pretty confusing, especially when it involves community property.\u00a0 Read on for a cautionary, and all-too-common, tale.<\/h2>\n

Carol and David Smith, married for 25 years, moved to Texas and bought a house.\u00a0 \u00a0The title company attorney initially prepared the property deed identifying them as \u201cCarol and David Smith, husband, and wife.\u201d\u00a0 David, being a shrewd man who knew a thing or two about real estate<\/a>, insisted that the deed be changed to \u201cCarol and David Smith, joint tenants.\u201d\u00a0 That way, he told everyone who would listen, when one of them died the survivor would own the house.<\/p>\n

Shortly thereafter, while walking barefoot in her garden, Carol had an unfortunate encounter with a copperhead snake and suffered an untimely death.<\/p>\n

Smug with his amateur estate planning<\/a>, David didn\u2019t bother to probate<\/a> Carol\u2019s will.\u00a0\u00a0 Instead, he continued to live in the house for the next 17 years.<\/p>\n

When he finally got ready to sell the house, he had a nasty surprise.<\/h3>\n

It turns out that in Texas the interest of a decedent (Carol, in our example) does not automatically pass to the other joint owner.\u00a0 Instead, the decedent\u2019s interest passes by will or, if there is no will, by intestacy.<\/p>\n

As a result, David did not automatically take title to the entire property merely because he was listed as a joint tenant.\u00a0 He could not sell the house because he did not have clear title to it.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the outcome would have been the same had the deed been titled as \u201cCarol and David Smith, husband, and wife.\u201d\u00a0 In Texas, a spouse does not automatically inherit real estate<\/a> just because it, the deed, is titled in both of their names.<\/p>\n

We can play this game all day long.\u00a0 If Carol and David had been listed as \u201cco-tenants\u201d or \u201ctenants with right of survivorship\u201d it would not turn out any differently.<\/p>\n

For a right of survivorship<\/a> to exist between a married couple, it has to be contained in a separate written agreement that meets all of the requirements of the Texas Estates Code<\/a> for a community property agreement<\/a>.\u00a0 \u00a0That is counter-intuitive for most people coming to Texas from another state.\u00a0 Shoot, it is counter-intuitive for most Texans, too.<\/p>\n

So what does David do now?<\/h3>\n

Well, he cannot probate Carol\u2019s will because more than 4 years have passed since her death.\u00a0\u00a0 To clear up the house title issue, David will have to go through an entire intestacy court proceeding and get a court order declaring that he owns the property.\u00a0 Only then will he be able to sell it.<\/p>\n

It would have been considerably more complicated if, in our hypothetical, \u00a0we had given Carol a few kids from a prior marriage.\u00a0 Then David would not have inherited all of Carol\u2019s share of the property.\u00a0 He would, instead, have owned the property with his step-kids.<\/p>\n

Oops.<\/p>\n

The Carol-and-David story teaches us, once again, that common sense has no place in Texas community property law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Virginia Hammerle is a licensed Texas attorney.\u00a0 Her practice includes estate planning, litigation, guardianship, <\/em>and probate law. \u00a0See hammerle.com for her blog and newsletter sign-up.\u00a0 This column does not constitute legal advice.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Texas real estate law can be pretty confusing, especially when it involves community property.\u00a0 Read on for a cautionary, and all-too-common, tale. Carol and David Smith, married for 25 years, moved to Texas and bought a house.\u00a0 \u00a0The title company attorney initially prepared the property deed identifying them as \u201cCarol and David Smith, husband, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":11737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[28,42],"tags":[939],"class_list":{"0":"post-11268","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-real-estate","8":"category-wills-trusts","9":"tag-property"},"yoast_head":"\nDeed for Death: Texas Twist for Survivors - Hammerle Morris Law Firm<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Texas real estate law can be pretty confusing, especially when it involves community property.\u00a0 Read on for a cautionary, and all-too-common, tale.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hammerle.com\/legaltalk\/real-estate\/deed-for-death-texas-twist-for-survivors\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Deed for Death: Texas Twist for Survivors - 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