Clear designation required, unless you're married
Pennsylvania recognizes joint tenancy with right of survivorship when the instrument creating it clearly designates that arrangement. Without a clear designation, a tenancy in common is presumed by law instead — a co-owner's share goes through probate. There's one built-in exception: for ownership arrangements between a husband and wife, Pennsylvania presumes a tenancy by the entirety by law, without needing the deed to spell it out.
A deed that used the wrong legal term entirely
A real Pennsylvania Superior Court case shows how far courts will go to honor a deed's actual intent, even over its literal wording. In 1972, a couple conveyed real estate to Raymond Reigle and his mother, Gertrude — describing them as taking title "as tenants by the entireties." Raymond and Gertrude were mother and son, not married to each other, which makes that specific form of ownership legally impossible for them. When Gertrude died in 1990, her estate argued the deed should default to a tenancy in common among her heirs. The court disagreed: because the "tenants by the entireties" language unambiguously expressed an intent to create survivorship — survivorship being the defining feature of that form — the deed instead created a joint tenancy, the co-ownership form that most closely matched that expressed intent. Raymond took full title to the property by operation of law.
A different kind of challenge: was the intent real at all?
Not every dispute over Pennsylvania joint tenancy is about ambiguous wording. In one Pennsylvania county case, an estate's executrix argued that a deed's clear joint tenancy language shouldn't control, because the joint tenancy had actually been set up in an attempt to shield the property from Medicaid estate recovery — meaning, she argued, the property remained a probate asset in substance despite what the deed said. This kind of challenge reflects a real tension in Pennsylvania practice: a technically valid joint tenancy deed can still be contested if someone argues the parties never genuinely intended the survivorship consequences that come with it.
The traditional four unities still matter
Pennsylvania joint tenancy still depends on the traditional four unities: interest, title, time, and possession. Each joint tenant needs an equal interest, acquired through the same instrument, at the same time, with an equal right to possess the whole property. An action that's inconsistent with maintaining these unities — such as one owner unilaterally conveying away their share — can sever the joint tenancy as to that share, converting it into a tenancy in common. Simply filing a partition action, without more, generally doesn't by itself manifest the irrevocable intent needed to sever.
No shortcut around any of this
Because Pennsylvania has no transfer-on-death deed, joint tenancy and tenancy by the entirety remain the two main tools for keeping real estate out of probate without a trust. See our explanation of why Pennsylvania has no TOD deed for the fuller picture, including what Pennsylvania does allow for other kinds of assets.