Illinois General Assembly - Illinois Compiled Statutes

Updating the database of the Illinois Compiled Statutes (ILCS) is an ongoing process. Recent laws may not yet be included in the ILCS database, but they are found on this site as Public Acts soon after they become law. For information concerning the relationship between statutes and Public Acts, refer to the Guide.

Because the statute database is maintained primarily for legislative drafting purposes, statutory changes are sometimes included in the statute database before they take effect. If the source note at the end of a Section of the statutes includes a Public Act that has not yet taken effect, the version of the law that is currently in effect may have already been removed from the database and you should refer to that Public Act to see the changes made to the current law.

765 ILCS 1005/1c

(765 ILCS 1005/1c) (from Ch. 76, par. 1c)

Sec. 1c.

Whenever a devise, conveyance, assignment, or other transfer of
property, including a beneficial interest in a land trust, maintained or
intended for
maintenance as a homestead by both husband and wife together during
coverture shall be made and the instrument of devise, conveyance, assignment,
or transfer expressly declares that the devise or conveyance is made
to tenants by the
entirety, or if the beneficial interest in a land trust is to be held as
tenants by the entirety, the estate created shall be
deemed to be in tenancy by the
entirety.  Where the homestead is held in the name or names of a trustee or trustees of a revocable inter vivos trust or of revocable inter vivos trusts made by the settlors of such trust or trusts who are husband and wife, and the husband and wife are the primary beneficiaries of one or both of the trusts so created, and the deed or deeds conveying title to the homestead to the trustee or trustees of the trust or trusts specifically state that the interests of the husband and wife to the homestead property are to be held as tenants by the entirety, the estate created shall be deemed to be a tenancy by the entirety. Subject to the provisions of paragraph (d) of Section 2 and
unless otherwise assented to in writing by both tenants by the entirety,
the estate in tenancy by the entirety so created shall exist only if,
and as long as, the tenants are and remain married to each other, and upon
the death of either such tenant the survivor shall retain the entire
estate; provided that, upon a judgment of dissolution of marriage or of
declaration of invalidity of marriage, the estate shall, by operation of
law, become a tenancy in common until and unless the court directs
otherwise; provided further that the estate shall, by operation of law,
become a joint tenancy upon the creation and maintenance by both spouses
together of other property as a homestead.  A devise, conveyance,
assignment, or other transfer to 2 grantees who are not in fact husband and
wife that purports to create an estate by the entirety shall be construed as
having created an estate in joint tenancy.  An estate in tenancy by the
entirety may be created notwithstanding the fact that a grantor is or the
grantors are also named as a grantee or the grantees in a deed.  No deed,
contract for deed, mortgage, or lease of homestead property held in tenancy
by the entirety shall be effective unless signed by both tenants.  This
Section shall not apply to nor operate to change the effect of any devise
or conveyance.

This amendatory Act of 1995 is declarative of existing law.

(Source: P.A. 96-1145, eff. 1-1-11.)