Can One Joint Tenant Remove Another?
No, not without their signature. Georgia law does not let one joint tenant take another owner’s name off a deed alone. The owner you want to remove has to sign a new deed. Or one narrow legal shortcut has to apply. There is no form you can file by yourself to erase someone else’s ownership.
Georgia’s survivorship statute is O.C.G.A. § 44-6-190. It controls how joint tenancy starts, changes, and ends. Read the full statute on Justia. It gives you three real paths off a deed. Only one skips the other owner’s cooperation.
- Removal by agreement needs a new deed. The owner leaving signs it. Then it gets recorded at the county.
- Removal after divorce can skip the new deed. A recorded affidavit does the work instead. This only works if the property was not already divided in the final order.
- Removal after death is not really removal. Survivorship already handled it. The surviving owner just needs a death certificate on file.
The Three Ways a Name Comes Off a Georgia Deed
Every real path to removing someone falls into one of three groups.
- A new deed that everyone signs. This is the most common option. It is also the most flexible. The next section covers it.
- Severing your own share. This only changes what happens to your own interest. It does not remove anyone else’s name.
- The divorce affidavit. This is a narrow shortcut. It only applies to a former spouse.
The next three sections walk through each one. Each section covers what it does, and what it does not do.
| Method |
Removes the other owner’s name? |
Needs their consent? |
New deed required? |
| New deed (everyone signs) |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Severing your own share |
No, only changes your own share to tenancy in common |
No |
Yes, for your own share only |
| Divorce/annulment affidavit |
No, converts to tenants in common, does not transfer ownership |
No |
No |
Removing Someone With a New Deed (Everyone Signs)
This is how almost every voluntary removal happens. The owner leaving signs a deed. That deed transfers their share to the remaining owner or owners. Then it gets recorded at the courthouse. None of this requires a court or a lawsuit, once the leaving owner agrees to sign.
1
Pull your current deed
Get a copy of the deed that put the property in joint tenancy. Your county’s Clerk of Superior Court website usually has it. Or ask your original closing attorney for a copy. You need the exact legal description, not just the address.
2
Decide what the new deed will say
A quitclaim deed is the usual choice for this kind of transfer. It works well between people who already know and trust each other. If more than one owner is staying on title, decide whether they want to keep survivorship. If they do, the new deed has to use words like “joint tenants” or “joint tenants with survivorship.” Without that language, Georgia treats the remaining owners as tenants in common by default.
3
Sign and notarize the deed
The owner leaving the title signs the new deed in front of a notary. Georgia also requires two witnesses. One of them can be the notary.
4
Record it and file the transfer tax form
Take the signed deed to the Clerk of Superior Court. Go to the county where the property sits. Recording costs $9.50 for the first page plus $2.00 for each additional page, under O.C.G.A. § 15-6-77(f)(1)(A)(i). You will also file a PT-61 transfer tax form. This applies even when no tax ends up being owed.
If an owner signs away their share without being paid for it, the IRS treats that as a gift. Gifts under $19,000 per recipient in 2026 do not require a federal gift tax return. For gifts over that amount, the departing owner, not the one receiving the share, typically files IRS Form 709, though actual tax is rarely owed until lifetime gifts pass the much larger federal exemption. The transferred share also carries over the departing owner’s original cost basis instead of stepping up to current value under 26 U.S.C. § 1015(a), which can mean a bigger capital gains bill if that share is sold later instead of held until death.
If the property carries a Georgia homestead exemption, check with the county tax assessor’s office before recording. A change in who is listed as owner can affect whether that exemption still applies, and the practice varies by county.
Once this is done, the county’s land records show the new ownership. See what a firm typically charges to prepare and record a deed like this if you would rather not draft it yourself.
Severing Your Own Share Without the Other Owner’s Consent
Georgia law gives every joint tenant one power the others cannot block. You can sever your own interest. Under O.C.G.A. § 44-6-190(a)(3), you can record a deed that transfers your own share. You can do this at any time. You do not need permission first.
This does not remove the other owner from the deed. It only changes what happens to your own piece. Once you sever, your share stops carrying survivorship. Your share no longer passes automatically to the other joint tenant when you die. Instead, it becomes part of your own estate, like a tenants in common share. The other owner’s name stays on the title exactly as it was.
People confuse this with “removing” a co-owner. It sounds like it should do more than it does. If your real goal is getting someone else’s name off the deed, this will not do it. You need a new deed signed by the other owner, or the divorce affidavit shortcut under O.C.G.A. § 44-6-190(a)(4).
The Divorce and Annulment Shortcut
Georgia gives divorced or annulled spouses one option nobody else gets. This is under O.C.G.A. § 44-6-190(a)(4). Either former spouse can file an affidavit with the county. The affidavit has to say the marriage ended. It also needs a copy of the final divorce or annulment order. And it needs the property’s legal description. That one filing turns the joint tenancy into a tenancy in common. No new deed. No signature from the other former spouse.
This shortcut has real limits. It only works if the divorce order did not already deal with the property some other way. It also does not put the property in one person’s name. It just ends survivorship. The property stays owned by both former spouses as tenants in common. Someone still has to transfer their share by deed later, whether through the divorce settlement or a sale.
What Happens to Survivorship for the Owners Left Behind
Say a joint tenant leaves and more than one owner remains. What happens next depends on how the new deed is written. Georgia will not assume the remaining owners want to keep survivorship. The new deed has to say so. It needs the same kind of language that created the original joint tenancy.
Say the new deed stays silent on this. Or it only names the remaining owners, with no survivorship language. Georgia’s default rule takes over. The remaining owners become tenants in common with each other. Each of their shares now passes through their own estate at death. It no longer goes straight to the other owner. If you want to keep the original survivorship arrangement, write it into the new deed on purpose. It does not carry over just because it existed before.
When to Get an Attorney Involved
A few situations turn this from simple paperwork into something worth paying for.
A mortgage on the property is the first one to check. Removing a co-owner can raise a due-on-sale question with your lender. Know which transfers are protected before you record anything.
A co-owner who will not cooperate is the second. No deed and no shortcut here moves someone’s name off a title without their signature. Not without a court case. Under O.C.G.A. § 44-6-160, any co-owner can also file a partition action, asking a judge to divide or sell the property.
Deciding between a joint tenancy deed and a trust is the third. Moving the property into a revocable living trust instead affects taxes, Medicaid planning, and what happens at death. A deed change alone cannot fix all of that.
A fourth reason to loop in a title company or attorney: recording a new deed can affect an existing title insurance policy. Some policies only protect the owners named on the deed when the policy was issued, so removing or adding a name can leave the new ownership lineup outside that coverage until a new policy or endorsement is issued.
Want the bigger picture on joint tenancy in Georgia first? See Joint Tenants with Right of Survivorship in Georgia. Is disagreement or a creditor part of what is driving this? Problems with Joint Tenancy in Georgia and What Happens If a Joint Tenant Has Creditors in Georgia cover what else can go wrong.
