What is joint tenancy? A way for two or more people to own one property in equal, undivided shares, where a co-owner's share passes automatically to the surviving owners at death instead of through a will.
Joint tenants own the whole property together rather than each owning a piece of it: equal shares, acquired at the same time by the same deed, with the same right to possess all of it. The feature people choose it for is the right of survivorship. When one joint tenant dies, their interest ends and the survivors own the property outright, with no probate and regardless of what a will says. Married couples and long-term partners often hold title this way for exactly that reason.
The cost of that simplicity is inflexibility. Shares cannot be unequal, so two people who put in 70 and 30 percent of the money still own 50 and 50 on paper. A joint tenant can sell or transfer their own share while alive without the others' consent, and doing so breaks the joint tenancy for that share and turns the buyer into a tenant in common with the rest. And a will cannot leave a joint tenant's share to anyone; if you want your half to go to a child rather than a co-owner, this is the wrong vesting.
In Nevada, joint tenancy is created by a deed that names the owners as joint tenants (NRS 111.065), and the survivorship is recorded after a death with a certified death certificate and an affidavit, not a court. Nevada also offers married couples community property with right of survivorship, which carries the same automatic transfer with the tax treatment of community property.
A worked example
Two partners buy a $450,000 house as joint tenants. One paid the whole $90,000 down payment; the deed still says equal shares. Twelve years later one of them dies. The survivor owns the house outright the day the death certificate is recorded, with no probate, and the will that left everything to a sister has no effect on the house.
See how the vesting reads on a county record
Questions people ask
What is the difference between joint tenancy and tenancy in common?
Joint tenants own equal shares and the survivors inherit a deceased owner's share automatically. Tenants in common can own unequal shares, each can sell or will their share independently, and a deceased owner's share goes to their heirs.
Can one joint tenant sell without the other?
They can sell or transfer their own share without consent, but doing so severs the joint tenancy for that share: the buyer becomes a tenant in common with the remaining owners, and survivorship no longer applies to that share.