Tenants In Common After Divorce In Michigan

MCL 552.102; MSA 25.132 states very clearly that upon divorce, both joint tenants and tenants by the entireties become tenants in common, "unless the ownership thereof is otherwise determined by the decree of divorce." The statute makes no distinction between "categories" of joint tenants, and we see no reason to read such a distinction into the statute, or to read the statute as restricting the court's authority to make an equitable division in light of all the circumstances. In Yeagley v. Yeagly, 314 Mich 451; 22 NW2d 769 (1946) our Supreme Court confirmed the fact that a divorce destroys the right of survivorship to property which was at one time jointly held, stating simply, "After the 1943 amendment of the decree wherein the property rights of the parties were fixed, plaintiff was no longer a joint tenant with her former husband with a right of survivorship."