With a car or mobile home title, what is the difference between and or or between owners names

Attorney Tom Olsen: Here's another topic. It's kind of similar, but it had to do with somebody calling me last week and that the dad and the stepmom, the dad had passed away, survived by their stepmom. All he owned was a double-wide trailer, not the land that the trailer is on. The double wide has a title on it just like a car does. They said, "What's going to happen when my stepmom passes away?" I said, "Well, here's where it makes a difference. Is the word 'and' or is the word 'or' between your names?" Because sometimes people, on a real estate deed, they'll put the word "and" or "or", but on a real estate deed that makes no difference whatsoever.

Attorney Chris Merrill: Exactly.

Tom: On a car title, boat title, double-wide trailer title-

Chris: It does.

Tom: -that word "or" does make a difference. The "or" automatically makes them joint tenants' right to survivorship. If the word "and" is between their names, when stepmom passes away her one-half interest in that double-wide would go according to what her will happens to say.

Chris: Exactly.

Tom: My suggestion to them was, "Hey, you should go back down to the Tag and Title office and retitle that so the word 'or' is between your names." They said, "No, Tom," I'm talking about the stepchild now, "We don't want to do that." Why? Because if the word "or" is between your names on any title, any one person can sell that car, boat, trailer with just one signature. They weren't really trusting her, if they put the word "or" between their names, that she might just sell that and move off somewhere and they're left with nothing.

They wanted to keep the word "and" between their names. I said, "What happens to her one-half interest in that double wide is now going to depend on what her will happens to say when she dies." They said, "Well, she doesn't have a will." I said, "She needs to get a will done or she says, 'I'll leave my one-half interest in this double-wide trailer to my stepchildren.'"

Chris: Exactly. Again, great example of what you're describing about how the ownership and the title of property - in particular cars, boats, motor homes, double wides - matters.

Tom: Yes. These are all variables, different options, different paths to go down. Our job as lawyers, part of that is trying to figure out, "Okay, what are they really trying to accomplish?"

Chris: Exactly.

Tom: Because sometimes the clients are not clear what they're trying to accomplish, or sometimes they're trying to say, "We're trying to accomplish A," but they're really trying to accomplish B.

Chris: Correct. All of those, very important to have a will.

Tom: Yes.

Chris: That's why you need to have a will. Any one of those cars, boats, motor homes, double wides, a will is very important because when you're trying to even deal with that with Tag and Title the will becomes the important legal document.

Tom: Hey folks, if you want to talk to a lawyer off the air, Attorney Robert Hidock is standing by to talk to you at the Olsen Law Group right now at 407-423-5561. My name is Tom Olsen. The name of the show is Olsen on Law.

[00:03:14] [END OF AUDIO]