46.2-622 - Issuance of certificate of title in names of joint owners.
§ 46.2-622. Issuance of certificate of title in names of joint owners.
When the Department receives an application for a certificate of title for amotor vehicle, trailer, or semitrailer, to be issued in the names of twonatural persons, jointly with right of survivorship, the Department shallissue to its owners a certificate of title accordingly. Any certificateissued in the name of two persons may contain an expression such as "or thesurvivor of them," which shall be deemed sufficient to create jointownership during the lives of the two owners, and individual ownership in thesurvivor. A certificate issued in the names of two persons, with their namesseparated only by "or," shall create joint ownership during the lives ofthe owners, and individual ownership in the survivor of them.
Nothing herein shall (i) prohibit the issuance of a certificate of title inthe names of two or more persons as owners in common which shall besufficient evidence of ownership of undivided interests in the vehicle; (ii)grant immunity from enforcement of any liability of any person owning thevehicle, as one of two joint owners, to the extent of his interest in thevehicle, during the lives of its owners; (iii) permit the issuance of acertificate of title in the names of two persons as tenants by theentireties; or (iv) be used by one of the joint owners as a defense to thesecured party's enforcement of a security interest in the vehicle that wasgranted by one or both of the joint owners of the vehicle on the same date orprior to the issuance of the certificate of title.
(1968, c. 188, § 46.1-68.1; 1983, c. 586; 1989, c. 727; 2002, c. 432.)