How to Sever a Joint Tenancy With Right of Survivorship

In BC, you usually sever a joint tenancy by transferring your interest to yourself with a Form A transfer, which section 18 of the Property Law Act allows without the other owner’s consent. That turns the joint tenancy into a tenancy in common and ends the right of survivorship. Co-owners can also sever by mutual agreement or by a course of dealing that shows they’ve treated their shares as separate.

Think severing a joint tenancy just means filling out a form? It’s rarely that simple once family money and old promises get involved. Candace Cho, KC, co-presented “Chameleon Transfers: Gifts, Loans, Joint Tenancies and Fraudulent Conveyances” to the Trial Lawyers Association of BC in 2018, and disputes over severed joint tenancies are a core part of her practice at Onyx Law Group’s Downtown Vancouver office. If you’re thinking about severing, or you think someone already severed behind your back, book a free 30-minute consultation to find out where you stand.

This blog explains how to sever a joint tenancy with right of survivorship in BC, including the legal steps, methods, and potential effects on ownership and estate planning.

Joint Tenancy vs. Tenancy in Common

The main feature of joint tenancy is the right of survivorship. When one joint tenant dies, their interest is extinguished and passes to the surviving joint tenant or tenants. The deceased’s estate takes nothing.

But the right of survivorship won’t apply if the joint tenancy was already destroyed by an act of severance. Severance converts the joint tenancy into a tenancy in common and ends survivorship. A tenant in common’s interest works differently. It stays intact when that owner dies and passes into their estate, under their will or the intestacy rules.

So which one do you have? Check the title, which shows how the owners held title from the day of taking title. Our article on joint tenants vs. tenants in common explains the choice and what it means for property ownership.

How to Sever Joint Tenancy in BC

Severing a joint tenancy in BC isn’t a single fixed process. The law recognizes several distinct paths, and a co-owner only needs one of them to convert a joint tenancy into a tenancy in common. Here are the main options, followed by the specific steps for the most common route: transferring your interest to yourself.

Option 1: Unilateral Action

One joint tenant can sever without the others’ consent. Section 18(3) of the Property Law Act treats a transfer by a joint tenant to themselves as having the same severing effect as a transfer to a stranger. This breaks the unity of title and turns the joint tenancy into a tenancy in common. Transferring your share to someone else works the same way.

Option 2: Mutual Agreement

All joint tenants can simply agree to sever. The agreement doesn’t need to be formal, but it’s worth putting it in writing. That way, no one can dispute later that the agreement happened.

Option 3: Course of Dealing

Sometimes there’s no formal agreement at all. Even without an agreement, a joint tenant’s conduct in dealing with their interest can be enough to show a severance, since courts treat this as a factual question determined by reasonable inference.

Option 4: Court Order

A court can order the property partitioned or sold under the Partition of Property Act, and that order severs the joint tenancy. The other owner, named as respondent, can argue against a sale. A court can also simply declare that a severance already happened based on the owners’ conduct.

A note on selling the property: a sale on its own doesn’t sever the joint tenancy. If the proceeds land in a joint account, the joint tenancy can continue in the money itself, which is exactly what played out in Zeligs.

What Are the Steps to Sever a Joint Tenancy by Transferring to Yourself?

If you’re set on severing your joint tenancy by transferring to yourself, the process runs through a few clear stages. Here’s how each one works.

Step 1: Prepare the Transfer

Fill out a Form A Freehold Transfer under the Land Title Act, listing yourself as both transferor and transferee. This transfers your undivided interest to yourself as a tenant in common.

Step 2: File It With the LTSA

Submit the transfer to the Land Title and Survey Authority, usually electronically through a lawyer or notary. You’ll need to include a property transfer tax return and, in most cases, a transparency declaration.

Step 3: Decide Whether to Notify the Other Owner

BC law doesn’t require you to tell the other joint tenant. That said, giving notice can head off conflict, especially if you’re sharing the home with them.

Step 4: Get Legal Advice First

Talk to a lawyer before you sign anything. Severing changes who inherits your share, and it can conflict with your will or a family law claim.

Once you sign and deliver the transfer, the severance generally takes effect between the owners even before it’s registered. This principle traces back to Stonehouse v. Attorney General of British Columbia, where registration wasn’t strictly required for severance to be effective between the parties, though it remains essential for protecting the severing party’s interest against third parties. Still, register it promptly. Section 20 of the Land Title Act limits how much an unregistered transfer can protect you against other parties.

Joint Tenancy vs. Tenancy in Common: What Changes When You Sever

Severing converts one ownership type into the other, and that swap changes more than just the paperwork. Here’s what shifts.

Joint tenancy trades control for convenience. Tenancy in common trades convenience for control. Neither is automatically the right answer. It depends on who you actually want to inherit your share, and whether avoiding probate matters more to you than deciding where your property goes.

If you’re not sure which structure fits your situation, especially where separation, blended families, or an adult child on title is involved, that’s worth reviewing with an estate lawyer before you sign anything.

What Counts as a Course of Dealing?

A course of dealing is the owners’ behaviour over time, considered as a whole. Did they discuss splitting the proceeds on several occasions? Does their conduct show a common intention to treat the property as separate shares, even though nobody signed anything?

The leading case in Canada today comes from an Ontario court. In Hansen Estate v. Hansen, 2012 ONCA 112, a separating couple hired lawyers, exchanged financial statements, and got an appraisal, and the husband died before a deal was reached. The trial judge found no severance, but the Ontario Court of Appeal reversed. Uncompleted negotiations can still show severance, judged on the totality of the evidence. Mutuality can’t happen without the other owner’s knowledge, though.

BC courts have cited Hansen. In Preskar Estate v. Wagner, 2023 BCSC 80, an unmarried couple held a Vernon house as joint tenants, separated in 2006 and sued each other in 2007, with certificates of pending litigation on title. He died in 2020.

The court found that their years of litigation had severed the joint tenancy long before his death. It adopted the Hansen view that “the negotiation of shares and separate interests represents an attitude that shows that the notional unity of ownership under a joint tenancy has been abandoned.”

One tension remains. An older BC Court of Appeal case, Tompkins Estate v. Tompkins (1993), required something close to detrimental reliance, and Hansen expressly disagreed with it.

Do You Need Consent or Notice to Sever a Joint Tenancy in BC?

Usually, no. It can feel sneaky, but it’s generally lawful. Section 18 of the Property Law Act lets one joint tenant unilaterally sever by transferring to themselves, and no BC statute requires notice to the other owner. The BC Law Institute’s report on joint tenancy confirms that severance can happen in secret, and it recommended a notice rule that hasn’t become law.

There’s one real exception. A spouse can register an entry against the family home under the Land (Spouse Protection) Act. Once that entry is on title, a disposition of the homestead by the other spouse is void unless the registering spouse gives written consent.

Does Separation or Divorce Sever a Joint Tenancy?

Marriage breakdown is where these questions get urgent. You’re already dealing with the end of a relationship, and now you’re wondering who gets the house if one of you dies first.

Under section 81(b) of the Family Law Act, on separation each spouse has a right to an undivided half interest in all family property as a tenant in common. Many BC lawyers read this as ending survivorship rights between separated spouses in the matrimonial home. Don’t assume, though. Check how it fits with dividing family property on your own facts.

Estate law points the same way. Under section 2(2) of the Wills, Estates and Succession Act (WESA), married spouses stop being spouses for estate purposes when an event gives rise to an interest in family property. Partners in a marriage-like relationship stop being spouses when one or both end the relationship. If you’ve separated, severing by Form A removes the guesswork.

What Doesn’t Sever a Joint Tenancy?

A will can’t sever, because a testamentary disposition only takes effect on death, and by then survivorship has already operated. The BC Court of Appeal confirmed this in Bergen v. Bergen, 2013 BCCA 492. Severance is only possible while you’re alive.

A bare statement that you want to sever isn’t enough either. Nor, as Zeligs shows, is a sale where the proceeds stay in joint names. Whether one owner’s mortgage severs is unsettled in BC, so avoid relying on it.

Does Severing a Joint Tenancy End the Right of Survivorship?

Yes, it can. And sometimes it happens by accident. That’s the lesson from Zeligs v. Janes, 2016 BCCA 280. In 2002, Dorothy Burnett put her Vancouver home on Knox Road into joint tenancy with her daughter, Diana Janes. She also gave Diana power of attorney and added her to a joint bank account. In January 2010, Dorothy was still alive but no longer mentally capable. Diana sold the house for $2.7 million. She put the money in the joint account. Within weeks, she took it all out for herself and her husband.

Dorothy died that April. She was 103. Her will left $50,000 to each grandchild. The rest was to be split between Diana and her sister, Barbara Zeligs. Barbara died about a year later. Her husband, Joseph, then sued on behalf of her estate. His argument was simple. Diana broke the joint tenancy before Dorothy died, so survivorship never kicked in. That meant half the money belonged to Dorothy’s estate. The trial court agreed. So did the BC Court of Appeal.

Here’s why. A joint tenancy rests on “four unities.” The owners must hold equal interests, get them from the same document, get them at the same time, and each have a right to the whole property. Break one, and the joint tenancy ends.

Under the old English case Williams v. Hensman (1861), that can happen in three ways: one owner acts alone on their share, the owners agree to it, or their conduct shows they treated their shares as separate. Selling the house didn’t do it. The money just moved into another joint account. But when Diana took the money for her own use, she broke the unity of title. The fund became a tenancy in common, split 50/50. Dorothy’s estate got half, and Diana held it in trust. Diana likely never meant to sever anything. But intent didn’t matter. Her actions did.

Pecore and Adding an Adult Child to Title

Most people assume the surviving joint tenant simply owns the property. But is it really that simple when a parent added a grown child to the title for free?

In Pecore v. Pecore, 2007 SCC 17, the Supreme Court of Canada held that when a parent gratuitously puts an asset into joint names with an adult child, the law presumes a resulting trust. In plain words, the child is presumed to hold it for the parent’s estate. The child can rebut this presumption with evidence that the parent intended to give them the right of survivorship. Pecore involved bank and investment accounts, and courts apply the same test to land.

This isn’t a severance rule. It’s about who owns the beneficial interest in joint ownership. In Zeligs, the trial judge found the presumptions of resulting trust and undue influence arose but were rebutted, so the survivorship gift itself was valid. Ms. Janes lost half the proceeds only because her own act severed the joint tenancy. See our pieces on joint accounts and the presumption of resulting trust and rebutting the presumption. If a sibling’s name on title feels wrong, contesting a gift may be the real issue.

Can a Power of Attorney Sever a Joint Tenancy?

It’s risky. The Power of Attorney Act limits what an attorney can do with gifts, bars an attorney from making or changing the adult’s will, and says nothing express about severing. An attorney who severs for a parent can end up rewriting the estate plan, and courts look hard at that.

Zeligs is a warning here too. Ms. Janes was her mother’s attorney, and the court also found she breached her fiduciary duty over mortgages she arranged on the property.

What Happens When a Joint Tenant Dies?

If the joint tenancy is still intact when one owner dies, the surviving owner applies to the LTSA using the Transmission to Surviving Joint Tenant application. This survivorship application needs an original death certificate, not a photocopy. It claims the survivorship exemption from property transfer tax. LTSA says most applications register within 10 to 15 business days.

If the joint tenancy was severed, the deceased owner’s share becomes part of the deceased’s estate and passes under their will or, if there’s no will, under WESA. That usually means probate. Under section 2 of the Probate Fee Act, there’s no fee on the first $25,000, then $6 per $1,000 up to $50,000 and $14 per $1,000 above that. Here’s how probate fees are calculated in practice. That’s the trade-off: severing gives you control over your share, but that share may go through probate.

What if both owners die together? WESA covers this in two places. Under section 5(2), if joint tenants die at the same time, or it’s uncertain who died first, each is treated as having held the property as a tenant in common. And under section 10(2), if it can’t be shown that one of two joint tenants outlived the other by five days, half the property passes as if each had survived the other. Either way, there’s no survivor to take the whole.

What Does It Cost to Sever a Joint Tenancy in BC?

Less than most people expect. There’s usually no property transfer tax, because exemption code 16 covers a transfer that changes a joint tenancy to a tenancy in common where the owners and their interests stay the same. You still file the tax return.

The LTSA’s fee listing as at April 1, 2026 shows $83.82 to register a transfer of title, $10.61 for a transparency declaration, and a $3.55 electronic transaction fee. Add legal or notary fees. For tax questions with respect to the principal residence exemption, talk to a tax adviser.

Ready to Sever a Joint Tenancy With Right of Survivorship in BC?

A joint tenant can sever with or without the other owner’s consent or knowledge, subject to statutes such as the Family Law Act and the Land (Spouse Protection) Act. And as Zeligs shows, one owner can be severed by accident, just by using the joint fund for their sole benefit. Once a joint tenancy is severed, survivorship is gone, and each share passes through its owner’s estate.

Severing a joint tenancy is simple on paper, but the timing and the evidence matter. If you’re weighing it, or a death has left you asking whether survivorship really applies, our estate litigation team can review your title and documents. Book a 30-minute free consultation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Joint tenancy comes with a right of survivorship, and severing it changes how a property gets divided when one owner dies. Here’s what people ask us most about making that change in BC.

Can I Sever a Joint Tenancy Without Telling the Other Owner?

Yes, in BC a joint tenant can unilaterally sever the tenancy by registering a transfer to themselves, without needing the other owner’s consent. Notice isn’t legally required, but it’s usually a good idea to avoid disputes later.

Does Separation or Divorce Automatically Sever a Joint Tenancy in BC?

Not on the title, but it can change your rights. Under section 81(b) of the Family Law Act, separation gives each spouse a right to an undivided half interest in family property as a tenant in common, which many BC lawyers read as ending survivorship between separated spouses. The title can still show a joint tenancy until a transfer is registered, so don’t assume either way and get advice on your own facts.

Can a Will Sever a Joint Tenancy?

No, a will has no effect on jointly held property, since the right of survivorship overrides whatever the will says. Severing the tenancy has to happen during your lifetime through a registered transfer, not after death through estate planning documents.

What Happens if a Joint Tenant Dies Before the Transfer Is Registered?

The right of survivorship still applies if no transfer was signed and delivered before death, meaning the surviving owner takes the whole property. A transfer that was signed and delivered but not yet registered can still sever the joint tenancy between the owners, as the Stonehouse case shows. Timing matters enormously here, so register promptly, because registration is what protects the transfer against third parties.

How Much Does It Cost to Sever a Joint Tenancy in BC?

Severing a joint tenancy in BC typically costs a few hundred to around a thousand dollars, mainly covering legal fees for preparing and registering the transfer plus the Land Title Office registration fee. The exact amount depends on the property’s complexity and whether a lawyer or notary handles the paperwork, so it’s worth getting a specific quote before starting the process.

Disclaimer: The information on this page is general legal information about British Columbia law, not legal advice for any specific situation. Reading this page does not create a solicitor-client relationship. BC law changes, and the procedure that applies to a specific situation depends on facts not covered here. For advice on your situation, consult a qualified British Columbia estate lawyer directly. Past results, illustrative scenarios, and reference to typical fact patterns do not guarantee similar outcomes in any specific case.