OWNERSHIP OF REAL PROPERTY. Real Property can be owned by a sole owner, or it may be owned jointly by two or more persons.  A person who is the sole owner of a parcel of real property is said to be the owner thereof in severalty. Concurrent ownership means simultaneous ownership of a given piece of property by two or more persons. The typs of concurrent ownership are:

      TENANTS IN COMMON. It is created when an interest in real property is conveyed to two or more persons. Interest may be any fraction of a whole, thus one party may own one tenth, another three-tenths, and  a third party may own the remaining three-fifths. There is no right of survivorship; each tenant owns an interest which on his death vests in his heirs or devisees.

     JOINT TENANTCY. Joint tenancy exists when two or more persons are joint and equal owners of the same undivided interest in specified property. Right of survivorship exists.  When a joint tenant dies, his interest in the property is terminated and the estate continues in the survivor or survivors.

     COMMUNITY PROPERTY. In California Community Property represents the earnings and accumulations of the marriage. Each spouse owns 50% which on the death of either spouse, his/her interest vests in his/hers heirs or devisess. Persons who are not married to each other cannot hold community property together

     COMMUNITY PROPERTY WITH RIGHT OF SURVIVORSHIP.  Starting July 1st., 2001, married couples in California can vest personal or real property in this new form of holding title. Community property of a husband and wife, when expressly declared in the transfer document to be community property with right of survivorship shall pass to the surviving spouse without having to first pass through the administration of the estate (probate).

PROPERTY OF MARRIED PERSONS WHICH ARE NOT THEIR COMMUNITY PROPERTY ARE THE SEPARATE PROPERTY  OF ONE OR THE OTHER:

1. Property owned before marriage.

2. Proceeds of separate property, such as dividends, rents, profits.

3. Gifts and inheritances received  after marriage.

4. Property agreed between the spouses to be separate property.

5. Earnings of the wife when she is living separate and apart from the husband.

6. Earnings of the husband when he is living separate and apart from the wife.