Deed From One Spouse to Joint Creates Entireties Ownership Per Florida Statute

If one spouse deeds property to themselves and their spouse, it creates a tenancy by entireties under Florida law.

Tenancy by entireties ownership requires certain characteristics. One requirement is that husband and wife must acquire their interest in the entireties asset simultaneously.

For instance, suppose a single man has a bank account. He gets married, and after marriage he adds his wife’s name to the account as a co-owner (not just an authorized signer). The account is not an entireties account because the husband and wife acquired their interests in the account at a different time and the man opened the account before being married.

Florida law provides an exception to simultaneous title in the case of married persons owning real property as tenants by entireties. Florida Statute 689.11 provides that if one spouse owns a property in his own name and conveys the property by deed to both spouses, the conveyance creates an estate as tenants by the entirety.

Prior to the enactment of this statute, an individual owner of homestead or other real property would have to convey the property to an unrelated third party and then have the intervening owner make a separate deed to the spouses jointly in order to establish entireties ownership of the property.