Mountain Property Case Study

Mountain property

After a long and prosperous law enforcement career and smart investments, Martin has finally decided to retire and visit his property that him and a few friends bought together many years ago. His friend and co land owner Peter has since passed on and had stated in his will that he would be leaving his interest in the property to his son Andrew. The issue is that Andrew needed money and has illegally taken out a loan for the interest in the property and Martin is now faced with a foreclosure because Andrew has defaulted on the loan. Under a joint tenancy, all are co-owners of equal shares and may sell their shares without the consent of other owners and their interest can be attached by creditors (Kubasek et al, 2015).

In North Carolina the statue in joint tenancy, is that an exception would be made to the general rule adopted two centuries ago, where the estate of joint tenancy in North Carolina is still without the right of survivorship, unless the instrument creating the joint tenancy expressly provides for a right of survivorship (Lanza, 2013).

Since the co-owners had rights of survivorship Andrew would not be entitled to any portion of the property, and Martin would own it 100%. My legal and friendship advice would be that the lender’s case would be invalid as it is an issue to use the interest of a joint ownership without ensuring right of ownership, in this case the lender cannot take legal action to foreclosure on the property. From a religious view, I would advise my friend to not discount Andrew’s wrong doing but find out more about his situation and ways that your faith may be able to help