Before the holidays, I met with a woman who had lost her husband to cancer in the fall. I’ll call her Joan. She needed some information regarding his estate and her duties as executor. Most of their assets were held jointly or Joan had been named as beneficiary. So settling his estate was fairly simple. However, there were still a few things to care of. One was the title to their home.
A check of the land titles system showed that Joan and her husband owned their Stittsville home as ‘joint tenants with rights of survivorship’. This means that upon her husband’s death, Joan became the sole owner of the property regardless of what his Will said. However, as I explained to Joan, although it is not essential to do anything about the house title right away, she should have a ‘Survivorship Application’ registered to remove her deceased husband’s name from title.
Until the survivorship application is done, the home cannot be sold, mortgaged, or otherwise dealt with. If Joan became incapable or passed away, not having the survivorship application taken care of could result in additional delay and expense.
Registering a survivorship application only updates Land Titles records. It does not update municipal tax records. An update to those records can be done separately at a current cost of $40 in the City of Ottawa.
There is another kind of ownership known as tenants-in-common which is very different from joint tenants with right of survivorship. If a person dies owning property as tenants-in-common with another person, there are no rights of survivorship. The deceased owner’s share becomes part of his or her estate and is distributed according to the person’s Will. If there isn’t a Will, distribution is according to Ontario’s intestacy laws.
If you jointly own real property and the co-owner has died, make an appointment to meet with one of our lawyers today. We will review the title to the property and advise if there is anything you need to do to protect your interests and save time and money in the future.
Reproduction of this blog is permitted if the author is credited. If you have questions or if you would like more information, please call us at 613 836-9915. This blog is not intended to be legal advice but contains general information. Please consult a lawyer or other professional to determine how the information in this blog might apply to you.
Blog posts pre-dated December 1, 2015 were originally published under Neff Law Office Professional Corporation.
