Tenancy in common by default
Under R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-3-1, a deed conveying real property to two or more people needs clear language expressing the intent to create a joint tenancy with right of survivorship. Without that clear language, Rhode Island presumes the co-owners hold the property as tenants in common instead, meaning each owner's share becomes part of their own individual probate estate at death rather than passing automatically to the others.
A genuine issue of first impression
A real Rhode Island Supreme Court decision from 2021 addressed a scenario the court had never previously had to resolve. A joint tenant filed a lawsuit seeking to partition — legally divide or force the sale of — jointly owned real property. Before the case was resolved, she died. A lower court dismissed her partition petition, reasoning that her death simply triggered the property's ordinary survivorship rule, passing the whole property automatically to the surviving joint tenant and ending the lawsuit along with her interest in it.
The Supreme Court's reversal
The Rhode Island Supreme Court vacated that dismissal. Addressing what it specifically termed an issue of first impression — meaning this exact legal question had never been decided in Rhode Island before — the court held that R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-15-12 abrogates the common law right of survivorship in a joint tenancy when an action for partition is pending. In practical terms, because the deceased joint tenant had already filed her partition lawsuit before she died, the ordinary rule that her interest would automatically pass to the surviving joint tenant didn't apply the way it normally would. Her estate was permitted to continue the partition action in her place.
Why this matters
This ruling shows that Rhode Island joint tenancy survivorship isn't quite as absolute as it might first appear — a genuine, already-pending legal dispute over how to divide the property can suspend the ordinary rule that death simply resolves everything in the surviving owner's favor. Anyone involved in an active partition dispute over jointly owned Rhode Island property, on either side, should understand that a co-owner's death during that litigation doesn't necessarily end the case the way it would in an ordinary joint tenancy with no such lawsuit pending.
Tenancy by the entirety for married couples
Rhode Island separately recognizes tenancy by the entirety, available only to married couples. This form of ownership provides automatic survivorship to the surviving spouse and generally protects the property from a creditor pursuing only one spouse's individual debts — a meaningful advantage ordinary joint tenancy between unmarried co-owners doesn't offer.
No TOD deed as an alternative, at least not yet
Unlike many other states, Rhode Island doesn't offer a transfer-on-death deed as a separate tool for keeping real estate out of probate. See our guide to Rhode Island's TOD deed attempts for the current status of legislation working to change that.