Types of Joint Property Ownership in Florida

Florida recognizes three forms of joint property ownership: tenancy in common, joint tenancy with survivorship, and tenancy by the entirety. The three forms differ in creditor protection, survivorship rights, and transfer restrictions.

Choosing the wrong form can expose property to creditors. It can also force unnecessary probate or defeat the asset protection a married couple assumed they had. On a deed or an account application, a single checkbox can decide whether an asset is protected or vulnerable.

What Is Tenancy in Common?

Tenancy in common is Florida’s default form of co-ownership between people who are not married. Section 689.15 provides that a conveyance to two or more people creates a tenancy in common unless the instrument expressly provides for the right of survivorship. The statute excepts estates by the entirety from that default. A deed listing two unmarried names with no further designation produces tenants in common. A deed to a married couple is presumed to create a tenancy by the entirety.

Each tenant in common holds a separate, divisible interest in the property. Those interests do not need to be equal. One owner might hold a 70% share and another 30%, or three owners might each hold one-third.

Each tenant in common can sell, mortgage, or transfer their interest without the other co-owners’ consent. A tenant in common can leave their interest to any beneficiary through a will or trust. When a tenant in common dies, their share does not pass to the other co-owners. It passes through probate under their will or Florida’s intestacy statutes.

Tenancy in common provides no creditor protection. A judgment creditor can levy on the debtor’s interest and file a partition action under Chapter 64 of the Florida Statutes to force a sale. The court orders the property sold at auction and divides the proceeds by ownership percentage. The non-debtor co-owners receive their share but lose the property itself.

What Are Joint Tenants with Right of Survivorship?

Joint tenants with right of survivorship are co-owners who hold equal, undivided interests in the same property. When one owner dies, the survivors automatically take the deceased owner’s share. The abbreviation JTWROS appears on deeds and financial account applications.

The transfer happens by operation of law, so the deceased owner’s will, trust, and heirs have no claim. If three people own property as JTWROS and one dies, the remaining two each own half. When the second dies, the sole survivor owns the entire property.

How Is JTWROS Created in Florida?

Florida law requires four unities to establish a valid joint tenancy with right of survivorship. Unity of time means all joint tenants must acquire their interests simultaneously. Unity of title requires all interests to come through the same instrument. Unity of interest demands equal shares. Unity of possession requires equal rights to use the entire property.

Because Section 689.15 makes tenancy in common the default for co-owners who are not married, creating JTWROS requires express language in the deed or account documentation. A deed naming two unmarried owners without that language creates a tenancy in common instead, which is a common source of unintended probate.

Does JTWROS Provide Creditor Protection?

Joint tenancy with right of survivorship provides no asset protection. A judgment creditor of one joint tenant can levy on that owner’s interest and force a sale. The purchaser at the execution sale becomes a tenant in common with the remaining co-owners, severing the joint tenancy as to the sold interest.

This risk is most dangerous when parents add an adult child to their property title as JTWROS for estate planning purposes. The child’s creditors can reach the child’s interest and force a sale that displaces the parents from their home. Adding a child to a deed may also trigger Medicaid look-back problems if either parent later needs long-term care. Medicaid can treat the addition as an uncompensated gift.

Can a Joint Tenant Sever the Tenancy?

Any joint tenant can unilaterally sever the joint tenancy by transferring their interest to a third party or even to themselves. The transfer destroys the four unities and converts the ownership to a tenancy in common as to the transferred share. The remaining joint tenants retain JTWROS among themselves, but the new owner holds their share without survivorship rights.

One joint tenant can convey their interest without the knowledge or consent of the other co-owners, destroying the survivorship the remaining owners are counting on.

What Is Tenancy by the Entirety?

Tenancy by the entirety is a form of joint ownership available only to married couples. It carries the same survivorship as JTWROS and adds two protections. Neither spouse can transfer or encumber the property alone, and a creditor of one spouse cannot reach the property at all.

The legal theory treats the married couple as a single owner rather than two individuals with separate interests. Neither spouse owns a divisible half—each spouse owns the entire property simultaneously with the other. Because no individual interest exists, there is nothing for a creditor of one spouse to attach.

How Is Tenancy by the Entirety Created?

Tenancy by the entirety requires six elements: the four unities that JTWROS requires; survivorship, which JTWROS also has; and marriage, which it does not. The couple must be legally married when they acquire the property.

For real estate, Florida presumes that property acquired jointly by a married couple is held as tenants by the entirety. For bank accounts, Section 655.79 creates a statutory presumption that a joint spousal account is tenancy by the entirety unless the couple specifies otherwise in writing. For other personal property, Florida presumes entireties ownership when a married couple holds the property jointly, and the creditor carries the burden of disproving it. The presumption assumes the unities are present, and it gives way where a statute prescribes how a particular asset must be titled.

Converting One Spouse’s Property to Entireties Ownership

Florida Statutes Section 689.11 applies when one spouse owns real property individually and wants to convert it to entireties ownership. Under the general rule, a deed from one spouse to both spouses would fail the unity of time requirement because the spouses did not acquire their interests simultaneously. Section 689.11 eliminates that problem. A deed from one spouse to both spouses creates a valid tenancy by the entirety without an intervening third-party conveyance.

This exception applies only to real property. For deposit accounts at banks and credit unions, the 2008 amendment to Section 655.79 created an entireties presumption that missing unities of time and title do not defeat. The Florida Supreme Court reached that conclusion in Loumpos v. Bank One, 423 So. 3d 856 (Fla. 2025). The decision helps a couple defend an account that was already converted; it does not make retitling a planning strategy. The fix is opening a new account titled as tenants by the entirety from day one and transferring the funds.

Why Is Tenancy by the Entirety the Strongest Protection?

Florida property held as tenants by the entirety is out of reach of a creditor of either spouse individually. A judgment creditor of one spouse cannot lien, attach, levy on, or force the sale of entireties property while both spouses are alive and married.

This protection extends to real estate, bank accounts, brokerage accounts, and tax refunds. Entireties ownership is a matter of how an asset is titled rather than a structure that has to be created, though the titling has to be right at the outset.

Vehicles follow a separate statutory rule. Under Section 319.22(2)(a), a title that names the spouses in the alternative with “or” is a joint tenancy even between a husband and wife, and either spouse can sign the car away alone. Only a title using “and” leaves entireties ownership available, and a creditor of one spouse levied successfully on an “or”-titled car in the 2004 decision Xayavong v. Sunny Gifts, Inc.

Married couples are usually better off titling each vehicle in one spouse’s name anyway, because Florida’s dangerous instrumentality doctrine makes every titled owner liable for an accident, and a judgment against both spouses reaches every entireties asset the couple owns.

Whether an LLC membership interest can be held as tenants by the entirety depends on the operating agreement, and Florida courts have not decided whether a couple’s entireties membership interest makes the LLC multi-member under the charging-order statute.

Three exceptions apply. First, creditors who hold judgments against both spouses jointly can reach entireties property. Creditors know this and routinely require both spousal signatures on contracts and personal guarantees to defeat entireties protection. Second, federal tax liens attach to entireties property under the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Craft, regardless of state law. Third, entireties titling does not defeat Florida’s fraudulent transfer statute: assets moved into entireties ownership to escape an existing creditor, or bought with fraudulently acquired funds, remain reachable under chapter 726.

How Do the Three Ownership Types Compare?

Only tenancy by the entirety stops a creditor who has a judgment against one owner alone. Entireties ownership and joint tenancy with right of survivorship both pass the property to the survivor and skip probate.

Feature	Tenants in Common	JTWROS	Tenants by the Entirety
Who can use it	Any co-owners	Any co-owners	Married couples only
Equal shares required	No	Yes	Yes (each owns 100%)
Survivorship	No	Yes	Yes
Probate required at death	Yes	No	No
Unilateral transfer allowed	Yes	Yes (severs tenancy)	No
Creditor protection	None	None	Protected from one spouse’s creditors (exceptions: joint debts, federal tax liens, fraudulent transfers)
Default in Florida	Yes (§ 689.15)	No (must be express)	Yes (married couples’ real property)
How one owner can end it alone	Partition action	Conveyance of their interest	Divorce only

What Are Common Errors That Create the Wrong Ownership Type?

Married couples frequently open bank or brokerage accounts and select “joint with right of survivorship” instead of tenants by the entirety. That choice defeats entireties protection only where the institution offered an entireties option and the couple picked a different one, which Florida courts treat as an express disclaimer. Where the form offered no entireties option, or said nothing about ownership, the presumption still favors entireties ownership and the creditor carries the burden of disproving it.

Section 655.79 backs that up for deposit accounts at banks and credit unions, but the statute protects the account only “unless otherwise specified in writing,” and a disclaimer inside the bank’s own account agreement counts as that writing. Brokerage and investment accounts fall outside Section 655.79, which reaches deposit accounts only, and some brokerage firms offer no entireties option at all. An express entireties election on the account application is what settles the question at opening.

When a couple purchases a home, the closing agent prepares the deed. A deed to the couple as husband and wife is enough on its own: that recital creates the entireties estate. A deed reciting “as tenants in common” names a different estate and gives one spouse’s creditor a divisible interest to attach. Florida courts have not decided whether a deed reciting “as joint tenants with right of survivorship” does the same for a married couple. A deed that names the estate expressly, as tenants by the entirety, avoids the argument.

What Happens When Joint Ownership Ends?

Tenancy in common ends when one co-owner buys out the others, when all co-owners agree to sell, or when a court orders partition. Any tenant in common can file a partition action at any time. The court will either divide the property physically or order it sold and the proceeds divided, which is the usual outcome for homes and developed land.

Joint tenancy with right of survivorship ends when a joint tenant conveys their interest, severing the tenancy. It also ends when all surviving owners agree to terminate or when only one survivor remains. A joint tenancy with right of survivorship is severed only by an act that destroys one of the four unities, which includes a divorce judgment that distributes one spouse’s interest. Marriage is not one of those unities, so a dissolution by itself does not end the estate.

Tenancy by the entirety ends only through divorce, death, or joint agreement to convey the property. Divorce automatically converts tenancy by the entirety to tenancy in common, eliminating both the survivorship feature and the creditor protection. Death of either spouse vests full ownership in the survivor by operation of law, bypassing probate.

Which Form of Joint Ownership Gives the Most Protection?

Tenancy by the entirety is the only Florida ownership form that keeps a creditor of one owner away from the property, and it is available only to married couples and only while the marriage lasts. Tenancy in common and joint tenancy with right of survivorship both leave an interest that the owner’s own creditor can levy on and sell. The two differ at death: a joint tenant’s share passes to the survivors, and a tenant in common’s share goes through probate.

For a married couple, the question worth checking is whether each asset is titled the way they assume. The deed, the bank signature card, and the vehicle registration each answer that question on their own terms, and one asset that misses entireties ownership is exposed even when everything else the couple owns is protected.