Tenancy in common is the default — except for spouses
Under N.J.S.A. 46:3-17, a transfer of real property to two or more grantees creates a tenancy in common, in equal, undivided shares — unless the deed uses express language to the contrary, or the grantees are spouses. Marriage flips this default entirely: under N.J.S.A. 3B:9-1, a transfer of real estate to a husband and wife creates a tenancy by the entirety unless the deed specifically provides otherwise. Unmarried co-owners need express joint tenancy language to get any survivorship at all; married couples get it by default.
Civil union partners get the same treatment
New Jersey has extended tenancy by the entirety recognition to civil union partners since the passage of the Civil Union Act in 2006, alongside its traditional availability to married couples. This puts civil union partners on the same automatic-presumption footing as married spouses for real estate conveyances.
The 1988 law that locked down both spouses' consent
In 1988, New Jersey enacted N.J.S.A. 46:3-17.2 through -17.5, codifying the treatment of tenancy by the entirety property in the state — often called the Entireties Act. Its most consequential provision states plainly that neither spouse may sever, alienate, or otherwise affect their interest in the tenancy by the entirety during the marriage or upon separation without the written consent of both spouses. This closed a door that had previously been open: before the Act, New Jersey courts could compel the partition and sale of a spouse's interest in entireties property in situations where equitable considerations justified that remedy.
The right of survivorship as its own asset
New Jersey courts have recognized that the right of survivorship inherent in tenancy by the entirety property is itself an alienable property interest — a legal recognition of just how central that survivorship feature is to the whole arrangement. Federal courts analyzing New Jersey law in bankruptcy cases have described tenancy by the entirety as made up of two distinct interests: a joint interest shared with the spouse, and an individual right of survivorship layered on top of it.
Real protection from an individual spouse's creditors
For real property specifically, creditors of just one spouse generally cannot force the sale of a home held as tenancy by the entirety to collect a debt owed by only that spouse. This creditor protection, combined with the automatic survivorship and the 1988 Act's consent requirement, makes tenancy by the entirety a genuinely strong form of ownership for married New Jersey couples — considerably more protective than an ordinary joint tenancy would be.
A different route for real estate that isn't jointly titled
None of this changes the fact that New Jersey has no transfer-on-death deed for real estate that isn't already jointly titled this way. See our explanation of why New Jersey has no TOD deed, including why it doesn't offer the Lady Bird deed workaround some other states do.