Joint tenancy severed by agreement

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has held that joint tenants can sever the joint tenancy and destroy the right of survivorship by agreement. Furnas v. Cirone, 221 N.E.3d 772 (Mass. 2023). While a joint tenant does not sever the joint tenancy by moving out, severance does happen when when the parties agree that one owner will remove all his personal property, continue to make monthly payments to his co-owner for half the monthly mortgage payment, and that the co-owner would either refinance or put the property up for sale. This agreement, by itself, was sufficient in the court’s eyes to “sever” the joint tenancy and turn the interests into tenancy in common interests.