My brother passed and we were joint owners of a property. Does his wife now own his interest?
Full Question:
Answer:
This answer assumes the property is located in Arkansas.
The answer depends on the wording of the deed. If you and your brother were joint tenants with rights of survivorship, then the property goes to you. If you were tenants in common, with no survivorship rights, his share goes to the people he named in his Will, or if he had no Will, it passes by the laws of intestate succession.
Since the property is in Arkansas and the Brother was a resident of Penn. I am not sure whether Arkansas law or Penn. Law of intestate succession applies to this property. That would determine who receives the property if you did not receive it based on survivorship rights, or he did not have a Will.
If Arkansas law applies to the property, Arkansas also recoginzes dower and courtesy rights that could also come into play in regard to the property if you did not receive the property based on survivorship rights. For more information please see this link.
Take a look at the deed language to see how title was held.
