§ 42-516 — Tenancies in common, tenancies by the entireties, and joint tenancies.

(a) Every estate granted or devised to 2 or more persons in their own right, including estates granted or devised to spouses or domestic partners, as defined in § 32-701(3) , shall be a tenancy in common, unless expressly declared to be a joint tenancy; but every estate vested in executors or trustees, as such, shall be a joint tenancy, unless otherwise expressed.

(b) An interest in property, whether held in tenancy in common, joint tenancy, or tenancy by the entirety, may be granted by 1 or more persons, as grantor or grantors:

(1) To 1 of them alone as grantee; or

(2) To the following, as grantees in tenancy in common, joint tenancy, or tenancy by the entirety:

(A) The grantors alone;

(B) Two or more of the grantors;

(C) The grantor or grantors and another person or persons; or

(D) One or more of the grantors and another person or persons.

(c) A tenancy by the entirety may be created in any conveyance of real property to spouses or to domestic partners as that term is defined in § 32-701(3) .

(1) Notwithstanding § 19-1305.05 , except as explicitly provided for in a trust instrument, property held by spouses or domestic partners, as that term is defined in § 32-701(3) , in a tenancy by the entirety that is subsequently conveyed to a trustee of a joint or separate revocable or irrevocable trust shall be presumed to have the same immunity from the claims of the separate creditors of the spouses or domestic partners as would exist if the property were still held by the spouses or domestic partners as tenants by the entirety; provided, that:

(A) The spouses or domestic partners continue to be married or in a domestic partnership with one another;

(B) The property continues to be held in trust by the trustee or the successors in trust of the trustee; and

(C) Both spouses or domestic partners are beneficiaries of the trust.

(2) The immunity from the claims of separate creditors under this subsection may be waived as to any specific creditor, including any separate creditor of either spouse or domestic partner, or any specifically described property, including any former tenancy by the entirety property conveyed into a trust, by the trustee acting under the express provision of a trust instrument or with the written consent of both spouses or domestic partners.

(3) Upon the death of the first spouse or domestic partner, property held in a trust that was immune from the claims of their separate creditors under paragraph (1) of this subsection immediately before the individual's death shall continue to have the same immunity from the claims of the separate creditors of the decedent spouse or domestic partner as would exist if the property were still held by the spouses or domestic partners as tenants by the entirety.

(4) For the purposes of this subsection, the term "property" includes the proceeds of any real or personal property.

Legislative History

Mar. 3, 1901, 31 Stat. 1352, ch. 854, § 1031; June 30, 1902, 32 Stat. 538, ch. 1329; Dec. 7, 1970, 84 Stat. 1390, Pub. L. 91-530, § 1; Apr. 27, 1994, D.C. Law 10-110, § 2(d), 41 DCR 1023; Sept. 12, 2008, D.C. Law 17-231,§ 33(a), 55 DCR 6758; July 18, 2008, D.C. Law 18-33, § 6(a), 56 DCR 4269