John, Ted, and Alice own property as joint tenants. If Alice sells her interest to Sam, what is the current ownership structure?

When Alice sells her interest in the property to Sam, the ownership structure changes due to the nature of joint tenancy. In a joint tenancy, all owners have equal shares and a right of survivorship, meaning that if one owner dies, their interest automatically passes to the remaining owners.

However, when one joint tenant (in this case, Alice) sells their interest to another person (Sam), the joint tenancy is severed for that individual. This means that Alice’s share, now held by Sam, cannot continue as a joint tenancy with John and Ted, who still retain their interests as joint tenants. Instead, Sam becomes a tenant in common with John and Ted.

In this scenario, John and Ted remain joint tenants with each other, maintaining their rights of survivorship, while Sam holds his interest as a tenant in common, which does not include the survivorship rights. Therefore, the current ownership structure is that John and Ted remain joint tenants, while Sam is now a tenant in common with them.