Any co-owner of property held in tenancy in common or joint tenancy may be freely transferred to third parties. This occurs because the new co-owner does not fulfill the unity of title and unity of time requirements. A partition is a judicial separation of property held in joint ownership by one or more individuals. Under partition, the court will either physically divide the property, or order it to be sold and the proceed distributed according to the percent interest held by each co-owner. The partition process involves all co-owners.
Partition is available to all but tenants by the entirety.
Partition is also not available if all co-owners agree to prohibit partitions. Courts will honor this agreement for a reasonable period of time. To the contrary, significant state and federal issues exist surrounding the taxation of the descendant's interest. Choosing a type of co-ownership because it provides a right of survivorship should not be a substitute to thorough estate planning. Consult legal counsel in order to understand all the probate implications of survivorship.