In a joint tenancy, how is property interest divided when one party sells their interest and another party dies?

In a joint tenancy, the key feature is the right of survivorship, which means that if one joint tenant dies, their interest automatically passes to the surviving joint tenants. When one party sells their interest in the property, the joint tenancy is severed. This creates a situation where the remaining ownership structure and interests are affected.

In this scenario, if one joint tenant sells their interest to an outside party, the new ownership structure typically consists of the remaining original joint tenants and the new owner. The division of interests would depend on the number of original joint tenants that remain after the sale.

If we consider an example where there are originally three joint tenants, and one sells their share, the remaining two original owners still hold their interest, which is not diminished by the sale. For instance, if Barbie and Midge are the remaining joint tenants after one party sells, they would each maintain their share of the property, which would still be considered equal as long as they originally had equal shares.

In the case presented, if Barbie originally owned two-thirds of the property and Midge one-third before anyone sold or died, once the sale happens, the outside party would take the sold interest without affecting the proportionate interests of Barbie and Midge in the remaining property