Which states recognize tenancy by the entireties

Recognizing the tenancy is a question answered one state at a time

There is no single roster of entireties states in the sources used for this page, so this is built statute by statute. Each entry below stands on its own section or, for Florida, its own opinion.

In New York a deed of real property to a husband and wife creates a tenancy by the entirety unless the instrument expressly declares a joint tenancy or a tenancy in common. EPTL 6-2-2(b)¹. Oregon runs the same default the other way from a tenancy in common: a conveyance to spouses married to each other creates the entirety unless the deed clearly and expressly says otherwise. ORS 93.180(1)(b)². North Carolina lists the exact grantee phrasings that trigger it, down to two named people married to each other whether or not the deed calls them married. N.C. Gen. Stat. 41-56(a)³.

Some states will not give you the estate without the magic words. Kentucky spouses take as tenants in common unless survivorship is expressly provided. KRS 381.050(1)⁴. A Mississippi conveyance to husband and wife creates an estate in common unless the instrument manifestly intends otherwise. Miss. Code 89-1-7⁵. In Massachusetts a devise to a person and spouse vests the entirety only if the instrument expressly so states, and words of joint tenancy produce a joint tenancy instead. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 184, 7⁶.

Florida reaches the estate two ways. A spouse holding title may create it by a deed to the other stating that purpose, or by conveying to both. Fla. Stat. 689.11(1)⁷. And the Florida Supreme Court held in Beal Bank v. Almand that real property owned by husband and wife in both names vests in them as tenants by the entireties, an estate carrying six marks, among them survivorship and marriage at the time the property was titled jointly. Statutes in Alaska, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Indiana, Maryland, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Virginia and Wyoming each provide for or confirm the tenancy in their own terms, by sections cited in the drawing below.

Two cautions. Ohio's statutes define tenants by the entireties as only those vested under a deed recorded between February 9, 1972 and April 3, 1985. Nothing in those sections authorizes creating the tenancy or recognizes one made outside that window. Ohio Rev. Code 5302.22⁸. Michigan and West Virginia statutes refer to property held as tenants by the entirety, MCL 557.71⁹ and W. Va. Code 36-1-19¹⁰, but how the tenancy arises in either state is case law this page has not read, so it does not say.

What a creditor of one spouse can reach, which is a separate question

Recognizing the estate is not the same as shielding it. Some of the states that create the tenancy also say what a lone creditor cannot touch, and at least one says the opposite.

Delaware is flat about it: property held by the entireties is not subject to the claims of a creditor of only one spouse. 25 Del. C. 309(c)¹¹. North Carolina says a judgment lien against one spouse alone does not attach to entireties property, the property is not liable for either spouse's individual debts, and the couple may convey it by joint deed free of a lien against either. N.C. Gen. Stat. 41-60(a)(1)¹². And in Florida the Supreme Court held that only the creditors of both spouses, jointly, may attach the property, which cannot be reached to satisfy the obligation of one spouse alone.

The shields elsewhere come with conditions. Illinois protects real property, a land trust beneficial interest, or a qualifying revocable trust interest held by the entirety from sale on a judgment entered on or after October 1, 1990 against one tenant, unless the property was put into the tenancy with the sole intent to dodge existing debts beyond the transferor's ability to pay. 735 ILCS 5/12-112¹³. That same section lets the income be garnished anyway. Massachusetts protects the debtor spouse's interest from seizure or execution only so long as the property is the nondebtor spouse's principal residence. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 209, 1¹⁴. Indiana lists a debtor's interest in real estate held as a tenant by the entireties among exempt property. IC 34-55-10-2(c)(5)¹⁵.

Then there is Oklahoma, which goes the other way. Nothing in its statute prevents execution, levy and sale of the judgment debtor's interest in a tenancy by entirety, and the sale severs the tenancy. 60 O.S. 74¹⁶. For New York, Pennsylvania, Missouri and the rest of the recognized states, the sources here do not say whether a creditor of one spouse can reach the directly held estate, and this page will not guess. Three jurisdictions answer a narrower cousin of the question: the District of Columbia, Hawaii and Virginia give entireties property the spouses move into qualifying trusts the same immunity it would have had as a tenancy by the entirety, on conditions each statute sets. D.C. Code 42-516(d)(1)¹⁷; HRS 509-2(b)¹⁸; Va. Code 55.1-136(C)¹⁹.

What ends the estate, and the lien that waits for it

The tenancy is married people's, and it ends when the marriage or the joint ownership does. The dangerous part for a debtor is what attaches at that moment.

Divorce converts the estate. Florida makes former entireties tenants into tenants in common on dissolution. Fla. Stat. 689.15²⁰. North Carolina does the same. N.C. Gen. Stat. 41-63(5)²¹. Illinois turns it into a tenancy in common by operation of law on a judgment of dissolution unless the court directs otherwise. 765 ILCS 1005/1c²².

North Carolina spells out the trap. A judgment lien against one spouse, obtained during the tenancy and still active, attaches when the tenancy ends: on divorce to that spouse's undivided interest, and on death to the whole property if the judgment debtor is the survivor. N.C. Gen. Stat. 41-60(b). The lien that could not touch the house yesterday attaches the day the marriage ends. A Florida deed between spouses carries its own limit worth naming: the spousal conveyance statute does not validate a deed made to defraud a creditor or avoid a legal debt. Fla. Stat. 689.11(3).

Personal property, where the states split hardest

A state can recognize the entirety for land and stop there. What counts as entireties-eligible property is its own map, and it does not follow the real-property map.

New York keeps the tenancy to real property, and since January 1, 1996 to cooperative apartment shares with their proprietary lease. EPTL 6-2-1²³. That is the narrow end. Virginia lets spouses hold personal property as tenants by the entirety whether or not it is the proceeds of real property. Va. Code 55.1-136(A). New Jersey creates the tenancy in real or personal property taken under a written instrument naming both spouses as husband and wife. N.J.S.A. 46:3-17.2(a)²⁴. Wyoming and Oklahoma reach real or personal property, and Hawaii reaches land and any other type of property. Wyo. Stat. 34-1-140(a)²⁵; 60 O.S. 74; HRS 509-2(a).

Florida draws finer lines. A mortgage made or assigned to husband and wife creates an estate by the entirety in the mortgage and the debt it secures, unless a contrary intention appears. Fla. Stat. 689.115²⁶. And the Florida Supreme Court in Beal Bank built a presumption around the joint marital bank account: against a third-party creditor, an account titled in both names is presumed held by the entireties if the signature card does not expressly disclaim that form and the unities are present, and the creditor then carries the burden of proving otherwise. A card calling the account a joint tenancy with right of survivorship does not by itself disclaim the tenancy; a card that expressly disclaims it and names another form does.

North Carolina treats a mobile home co-owned by spouses as entireties property unless the title shows a contrary intention. N.C. Gen. Stat. 41-56(d). And it tracks what happens to proceeds: a voluntary sale to a third party leaves the proceeds held as tenants in common, while an involuntary transfer leaves them held by the entirety. N.C. Gen. Stat. 41-63(1), 41-63(3). Michigan is the one to read slowly here. Its statute has bonds, stock certificates, mortgages and notes payable to husband and wife held in joint tenancy unless the instrument says otherwise, MCL 557.151²⁷, and joint tenancy is not the entirety, whatever the next clause about real estate seems to invite.

When both spouses owe the debt

The single-creditor shield is beside the point once the debt is joint. The property that one creditor cannot reach is often open to a creditor of both.

North Carolina says entireties property is liable for obligations of both spouses, and a judgment lien against both on a joint obligation attaches and the property may be sold under execution. N.C. Gen. Stat. 41-60(a)(2). Indiana's exemption for the entireties interest does not apply to a debt for which the debtor and the spouse are jointly liable. IC 34-55-10-2(c)(5). Massachusetts makes both spouses liable, jointly or severally, for debts incurred for necessaries furnished to either spouse or the family, as a proviso sitting right beside its protection. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 209, 1.

The voidable-transfer statutes of Florida, New York, Pennsylvania and Missouri each leave out of the definition of 'asset' an interest in entireties property, but only to the extent a creditor holding a claim against one tenant cannot reach it by process. Fla. Stat. 726.102(2)(c)²⁸; DCL 270(b)(3)²⁹; 12 Pa.C.S. 5101(b)³⁰; RSMo 428.009(2)³¹. Read that condition carefully: the carve-out measures itself against the single-creditor rule, so it does not itself tell you whether Pennsylvania or Missouri shields the property, and this page does not answer that. In bankruptcy, a debtor who takes the state-law alternative may exempt an entireties interest to the extent it is exempt from process under applicable nonbankruptcy law, 11 U.S.C. 522(b)(3)³²(B), which sends you straight back to the state's own rule and adds nothing to it.

What this does not settle

The limit of this page is its roster. It names the states whose law this page has read and is silent on the rest.

There is no master list here of every entireties state, and a jurisdiction not drawn below is absent because its law was not read, not because it rejects the tenancy. For many of the states that do recognize it, including New York, the sources do not say what a creditor of one spouse can reach when the property is held directly rather than in a trust, and the page leaves that open. Michigan and West Virginia are named for statutes that mention the estate without creating it, and how it arises in either is a gap this page does not close.

Nobody writing this is a lawyer and none of it is advice. Whether an entireties estate stands between a judgment and a particular debtor's property is a question for counsel with the file open. It turns on the state, on the kind of property, and on whose name is on the debt. For how the deed describes a relationship rather than proving one, and why the fact that decides it is not in the land records, see tenancy by the entireties and what a deed does not say. What a page can do is narrower. It can tell you which of three questions your own file has to answer first.