4.3 Pennsylvania Property Ownership and Rights

Forms of Concurrent Ownership

The exam tests how multiple owners hold title and what happens at one owner's death. Pennsylvania recognizes three concurrent forms plus sole ownership. The decisive question is always: is there survivorship, and was it created correctly?

The default presumption

Pennsylvania presumes tenancy in common when a deed conveys to two or more unmarried people without survivorship language. To create JTWROS, the deed must expressly state the right of survivorship (e.g., "as joint tenants with right of survivorship and not as tenants in common"). Forgetting this rule is a classic miss.

Worked example: A deed conveys "to Alice and Bob." Alice dies. Because no survivorship words appear, this is tenancy in common — Alice's half passes through her estate to her heirs, not automatically to Bob. Had the deed said "as joint tenants with right of survivorship," Bob would take the whole property outside probate.

Tenancy by the Entirety: The Married-Couple Special Case

Tenancy by the entirety (TBE) is available only to married couples and is presumed when spouses take title together in Pennsylvania. Its defining features make it a frequent exam answer:

Trap: A creditor of both spouses jointly (a joint debt) can reach entireties property. Only a single-spouse creditor is blocked. And on divorce, TBE automatically converts to a tenancy in common.

Lien Theory and Mortgage Documents

Pennsylvania is a lien-theory state. The borrower (mortgagor) keeps legal title; the lender (mortgagee) holds only a lien as security. This contrasts with title-theory states, where the lender holds title until the loan is paid.

Because the lender holds only a lien, it cannot simply take the property on default — it must foreclose through the courts.

Judicial Foreclosure in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania requires judicial foreclosure (an action in mortgage foreclosure). There is no power-of-sale shortcut. Owner-occupants of residential property are also protected by Act 6 and Act 91 pre-foreclosure notices that trigger reinstatement and counseling rights.

Trap: Pennsylvania has no statutory post-sale redemption period for typical mortgage foreclosures (a narrow exception exists for some tax sales). Once the sheriff's sale is confirmed, the former owner cannot buy the property back as of right.

Deficiency Judgments and Homestead Protection

Pennsylvania permits deficiency judgments: if the sheriff's-sale proceeds do not satisfy the debt, the lender may sue the borrower for the shortfall, subject to the Deficiency Judgment Act, which credits the property's fair market value (not just the sale price) against the debt.

Unlike Florida or Texas, Pennsylvania offers no broad state homestead exemption. Protection is limited — a debtor in bankruptcy may use the federal homestead exemption, but Pennsylvania itself does not shield unlimited home equity from creditors. Expect a question contrasting Pennsylvania's limited protection with states offering unlimited homestead protection.

Severance, Partition, and Practical Consequences

The exam often asks what one co-owner can do without the others. The answer depends on the form of ownership:

• Tenancy in common: Each owner may sell, mortgage, or will away their fractional interest freely, and any co-owner may force a sale through an action in partition. There is no survivorship to defeat.
• Joint tenancy: A joint tenant may sever the joint tenancy by conveying their interest to a third party; doing so converts that share to a tenancy in common while any remaining joint tenants keep their JTWROS among themselves. A unilateral conveyance therefore destroys survivorship as to the transferred share.
• Tenancy by the entirety: Neither spouse can sever, convey, or partition alone — both signatures are required to sell or mortgage. This is the strongest protection and the most tested distinction.

Worked example — severance: Three siblings hold land as joint tenants with right of survivorship. One sibling deeds her interest to a friend. That one-third now becomes a tenancy in common with the friend, while the remaining two siblings still hold their two-thirds as joint tenants between themselves. If one of those two later dies, the survivor takes that share — but the friend's third is unaffected.

Worked example — entireties and a single creditor: A husband incurs a personal credit-card judgment. The marital home is held as tenancy by the entirety. The card company cannot levy on the home because the debt is the husband's alone. If instead both spouses had co-signed the debt, the home would be exposed.

Exam takeaway: Survivorship beats a will. Property held in JTWROS or TBE passes to the survivor by operation of law and is not controlled by the deceased owner's will — a frequent distractor in probate questions.