Court Opinion

ID: 9787116
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 00:10:56.619545+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:36:52.390973
License: Public Domain

Agosti, J.,
concurring:
I concur. I write separately to point out the impact this decision has upon married couples who hold property in joint tenancy.
Attorneys in Nevada will need to take special care to advise their clients concerning whether or not to file a homestead declaration when the real property is held in joint tenancy. Traditionally, a joint tenant enjoys the power to convey his or her interest in the property held in joint tenancy with another, without the other’s knowledge or consent. Such a conveyance by a joint tenant terminates the joint tenancy.1 As pointed out by the dissent, today’s decision does, in effect, transmute property held in joint tenancy into community property. NRS 123.230(3) forbids either spouse to convey or encumber real property which is community property unless both spouses participate in the conveyance or encumbrance. Today’s decision permits the act of filing a homestead declaration to create rights each joint tenant has in the undivided whole which heretofore did not exist. The holding subjects homesteaded property held in joint tenancy between spouses to the same dispositional limitations as are described in NRS 123.230(3). The decision does so without reference to or consideration of the amount of the homestead exemption which the legislature sets and from time to time changes.
While I do not quarrel with the result reached by the majority in this case, I believe it raises many more questions than it answers. The filing of a homestead exemption which was once an innocuous act designed to protect property will now be sufficiently complicated by legal consequences that consumers will be wise not to seek the exemption without first seeking the advice of a qualified attorney.

Smolen v. Smolen, 114 Nev. 342, 344, 956 P.2d 128, 130 (1998).