Tenancy in common by default, for everyone
Under K.S.A. § 58-501, real or personal property granted or devised to two or more people — explicitly including a grant to a husband and wife — creates a tenancy in common by default, unless the language used makes clear that a joint tenancy was intended. Notably, the statute makes a specific exception: a grant or devise to executors or trustees, acting as such, creates a joint tenancy among them by default, unless it expressly declares otherwise — the reverse default from ordinary co-owners.
No tenancy by the entirety, for anyone
Kansas does not recognize tenancy by the entirety at all. In states that do recognize it, married couples often get an automatic or easier path to survivorship, sometimes with extra creditor protection built in. Kansas offers none of that special treatment — spouses who want survivorship in real estate need to create an ordinary joint tenancy with clear survivorship language, exactly the same as any unmarried co-owners would.
Self-conveyance is directly authorized
Kansas statute directly authorizes a transfer to persons as joint tenants from an owner, or a joint owner, to himself or herself and one or more other persons as joint tenants. It also authorizes tenants in common converting themselves into joint tenants, and coparceners doing the same through voluntary partition. This eliminates any need for the old common-law workaround of routing a self-conveyance through an intermediary straw person.
The granting clause wins if the deed contradicts itself
Where a deed grants an estate in joint tenancy in its granting clause, but a later part of the same deed (the habendum clause) contains inconsistent language, Kansas law says the granting clause controls. This gives title examiners a clear, statute-backed rule for resolving an internally contradictory deed rather than leaving the outcome genuinely uncertain.
Clearing title after a joint tenant's death
When a joint tenant dies, Kansas law treats several kinds of documents as prima facie evidence of that death for title purposes: a certified copy of letters testamentary or letters of administration, or, where the estate isn't formally probated or administered, an official death certificate, or an affidavit of death from someone with personal knowledge of the facts. For real property, that certificate or affidavit gets recorded with the register of deeds in the county where the land is located, clearing title in the surviving joint tenant without a probate proceeding for that specific asset.
A separate, more modern tool for real estate
None of this changes the fact that Kansas also offers a completely separate route for keeping real estate out of probate — and a genuinely early one at that. See our guide to the Kansas transfer-on-death deed for how that tool works alongside these joint ownership rules.