[crikit]

Hello,
We my husband and I, own land jointly in Missouri. On the title it states my husbands name and my name. Now, my husband is terminally ill and we want to tie up all legal issues. Our question is this: the title as it reads"Michael AND Patty"..Is the "and" of any significance?? Will it be a problem for me(wife) in future proceedings of this property ie: sale of, taxes,... etc???
thank you Lunagoddess...My husband is confused and may not be able to state, in a clear and concise way, what he wants done. I am in the process of obtaining power of attorney so I may make the decisions,I guess more specifically we are asking this: On all of our legal documents it states MiKe OR Patty but on this particular situation/document it states "AND" and not "OR". I know in the case where it states "or" I can solely choose, but with the AND I am not so sure?
Thanks again...

[LUNAGODDESS]

It will take an order from a judge to make any arrangements in name changes but in your case all parties are still living and are in sound mind... so the use of and/or will be necessary on all documents with your spouse name...

[ScottGem]

The key is not the And/Or but the TYPE of ownership. Most ownership (of anything) is defined as Joint tenants with... The With is the key. If its with right of survivorship, then there is no problem, the only thing that should be needed to change the deed is the death certificate and the proper forms. If there is some other joint tenancy, it will depend on what it is.

[Fr_Chuck]

Yes Scott hit the nail on the head, when the deed was done, and recorded, it would have been done in varoius ways, one way is with right of survialship, very common for married couples, but it could have been done where each were equal owners, thus one owning 1/2.

You need to take the title and deed to a real estate attorney who can reviw it and tell you.. If it is not, it can easily be changed by that attorney.