A month after the default judgment was granted, the parties entered into an agreement of purchase and sale for the house. The ex-spouses then consented to a family court order to sever the joint tenancy. A few months later, the wife asked that her one-half share of the net proceeds be paid out to her.
Unsurprisingly, the company objected to the wife getting her one-half share of the net proceeds, since if the net proceeds were released to the wife, the company would be repaid even less of the $1.7 million it was owed.Article content The ownership of the property actually changes when a joint tenancy is severed. Each owner then owns an undivided one-half interest in the property as “tenants in common.”
Depending on the province, property held in joint tenancy can be severed by the parties’ actions, such as getting a court order to sever, or, in Ontario, by transferring one’s own interest in the home to oneself.of the house proceeds because the spouses were still joint tenants when the husband became indebted to the company.