Real Estate Law in New Mexico... Joint Tenants, please read details?

I am a petroleum landman and some coworkers are having a dispute on some real estate law for a New Mexico Property.

If two parties come into title as Joint Tenants and one of those Joint Tenants executes a Warranty Deed on his own, is that deed valid?

My understanding of Joint Tenancy is that once the parties are in the joint tenancy it requires a signature from both parties so sell or convey even one tenants interest.

The argument on the other side is that each party has a right to sell and/or convey his own property. My problem with this argument is that each party does not own the property on his or her own right, they both own it together.

If anyone with New Mexico Real Estate Law experience can help me it would be greatly appreciated.

Also if you can post a Link to where you found the proof it would help me out to no end! Thanks

That's a good question, and most people have it completely wrong; just as you do. Every citizen in this country has a right to own property AND sell or dispose of property as they see fit. (As long as the original Deed doesn't stipulate otherwise, which is very rare).

If party A and B receive land or real property as Joint Tenants, and A decides to sell his share, he has every right to do so. Furthermore, he does not need consent of the other co-owner (party B), nor does Party B need to have any prior knowledge of the sale. Party B and the new owner of Party A's share are now what is called Tenants-in-Common. The land is still owned by both of them, but there are no rights of survivorship.

What you may be thinking of is where Joint Tenants wish to partition the property. That is when it has to be requested and both parties must consent. This is rare.

As a Landman or title examiner, this has huge implications for when you are determining ownership throughout the years. This is something you should be sure to know.

Check your state's Property Land Code. Good luck finding New Mexico's as much of this was established via precedent and THEN possibly adopted in statute. Again, possibly.

Hope this was helpful. Check out Wikipedia, it has a great layman's explanation.

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