A statute that spells out its own accepted phrases
Under 33 M.R.S. § 159, a conveyance of real property to two or more people creates an estate in joint tenancy when the deed uses appropriate language expressing that intent. Rather than leaving "appropriate language" to be worked out through case-by-case litigation, Maine's statute directly enumerates a genuinely long list of phrases that are all sufficient by themselves: "as joint tenants," "in joint tenancy," "as joint tenants with rights of survivorship," "with rights of survivorship," "to them and to the survivor of them," "to them and their assigns and to the survivor and the heirs and assigns of the survivor forever," or "as tenants by the entirety."
Why the list is so long
This level of statutory detail is genuinely unusual. Most states simply require that a deed "manifestly" or "clearly" express an intent to create a joint tenancy, leaving courts to work out whether any particular wording qualifies. Maine's approach instead directly names the specific phrases property owners and their attorneys have used over many decades — including notably old-fashioned formulations like "to them and their assigns and to the survivor and the heirs and assigns of the survivor forever," a phrase style that echoes much older conveyancing traditions. This gives Maine deed drafters, title examiners, and courts a much more predictable, directly citable list to work from, rather than needing to interpret whether a given deed's wording is "clear enough."
Self-conveyance is directly authorized
Maine's statute also covers self-conveyance directly: a conveyance from an owner to the owner and one or more others, using appropriate survivorship language, creates a joint tenancy among all of the grantees — specifically including the original grantor — without needing to route the transaction through an intermediary third party.
Tenancy in common remains the default
Without one of these recognized phrases, or other language that similarly and clearly expresses an intent to create survivorship, Maine presumes a tenancy in common instead. Each owner's share in a tenancy in common becomes part of their own individual probate estate at death, rather than passing automatically to the other co-owners.
Tenancy by the entirety included in the same list
Notably, Maine's statute treats tenancy by the entirety as simply one more recognized phrase within the same overall list, rather than setting it apart with its own separate statutory section the way some other states do. The phrase "as tenants by the entirety" is specifically named as sufficient, giving married couples a direct route to that form of ownership using the exact same statutory framework that governs joint tenancy generally.
A separate, more modern tool for real estate
None of this changes the fact that Maine also offers a completely separate route for keeping real estate out of probate. See our guide to the Maine transfer-on-death deed for how that tool works alongside these joint ownership rules.