Contracts For Unmarried Couples In Michigan

State:
Multi-State
Control #:
US-00414BG
Format:
Word; 
Rich Text
Instant download

Description

Co ownership of real property can be in the following forms:



" Tenancy in common, in which the interest of each owner may be transferred or inherited;


" Joint tenancy, in which the tenants each have a right of survivorship;


" Tenants by the entirety, in which a husband and wife own property and have a right of survivorship; or


" Community property, which applies in some States to property acquired during the period of a marriage.


The phrase joint tenancy refers to a method of ownership by which one person mutually holds legal title to property with other persons in such a way that when one of the joint owners dies his share automatically passes to the surviving joint owners by operation of law.


Traditionally, when two or more people own real property together, they hold it as tenants in common. Owning real property as joint tenants with full rights of survivorship has, in the past, been usually been limited to married couples or other close kinship. However, there is no reason that single unmarried people cannot own property in a joint tenancy arrangement.

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  • Preview Agreement by Unmarried Individuals to Purchase and Hold Residence as Joint Tenants
  • Preview Agreement by Unmarried Individuals to Purchase and Hold Residence as Joint Tenants
  • Preview Agreement by Unmarried Individuals to Purchase and Hold Residence as Joint Tenants

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FAQ

In Michigan, marital property laws and many other rights married couples enjoy do not extend to unmarried couples. Even couples in very long-term and committed relationships do not have the same legal rights as married couples.

Couples often live together before they marry, and many live together indefinitely without getting married at all. Property laws generally treat an unmarried couple as separate individuals with no legal rights or responsibilities if the relationship ends.

If a couple has not planned for the worst-case scenario and does not have an agreement in place, in many instances the simple answer is there is no set process. Unmarried couples going through a breakup must, on their own, reach an agreement on what to do with jointly owned property.

Perhaps the most common way for unmarried couples to take title to real property is as "tenants in common." Unlike a joint tenancy, a tenant in common has no automatic right to inherit the property when the other partner dies.

Most property you or your spouse got during your marriage is marital property. If there is a title or deed, it does not matter whose name is on it. It is still marital property unless it was a gift or inheritance.

In the absence of an agreement to the contrary, typically it would be a 50-50 split. The other party would be forced to buy out your equity in the property and refinance the mortgage so that it is in her name, or the property would have to be sold and you'd split the proceeds.

Joint Tenancy. If you take title as joint tenants, you share equal ownership of the property and each of you has the right to use the entire property. If one joint tenant dies, the other automatically becomes the owner of the deceased person's share, even if there's a will to the contrary.

Technically, the traditional way for a married couple with the same last name is ``Mr. and Mrs. John Doe,'' which also turns my inner feminist tomato red, but a lot of the other options (married, different last names, for example) use the ``Mr. John Doe and Mrs. Jane Day'' format. :)

Unmarried couples typically hold title in one of two ways: joint or tenancy in common.

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Contracts For Unmarried Couples In Michigan