Which action severs a joint tenancy in New York?

• A. One joint tenant sells property (even if sale did not close)
• B. A mortgage by one joint tenant severs
• C. Agreement to partition
• D. Death of a joint tenant

Answer: (A)

A joint tenancy lasts only while all four unities—time, title, interest, and possession—remain intact and there’s a right of survivorship. Severance occurs when a co-tenant takes action that shows an intent to end the joint tenancy and transfer their interest to someone else. When one joint tenant sells their interest to a third party (even if the sale hasn’t closed yet), that sale breaks the unity of title. The buyer becomes a tenant in common with the remaining co-owners, and the joint tenancy is destroyed for that owner’s share. The remaining owners no longer hold the property as joint tenants with rights of survivorship; they hold as tenants in common with the buyer.

Mortgage by one joint tenant doesn’t sever the joint tenancy in New York; it creates a lien on that owner’s share but keeps the unity intact. An agreement to partition can lead to severance, but the clearest, direct severance is a transfer of interest by sale. Death ends the deceased’s interest, but it’s not an act by a co-tenant that severs the joint tenancy in the same sense as a transfer to a third party.