muder of joint tenancy co-ownership?

Question

right of survivorship

what I specifically want to know is if there are two benificial (in equity) joint tenants and one kills the other (A kills B) will A be entitled to his ahre in equity or would he not received anything and the benificial interest goes to B's benificiary

Answer 1

It depends on the jurisdiction. In some states, if one co-tenant kills the other, the share in property passes as though the "slayer" predeceased the "slayed." In other states, the survivorship interest still passes to the "slayer" in spite of the criminal act.

Also note--you can be acquitted criminally for the murder and still lose your right of survivorship in the property because the burden of proof for the criminal case is higher than the burden on the civil case. What you can prove by preponderance of the evidence may not necessarily meet the beyond a reasonable doubt standard, and a criminal conviction is not required for one of these "slayer statutes" to impact how the property interests pass.

Answer 2

In Australia you cannot benefit from a crime - so if you killed the joint tenant, then you would lose your share of the asset - and presumably it would go to the (now dead) joint tenant's relative/s. How complex, I can only hope this is strictly on paper and not real.

Answer 3

If they are truly joint tenants, then the property interest is dissolved at death. This means that the surviving cotenant owns the property completely.