Tenancy by the entirety is a special form of co-ownership available only to married couples, based on the legal fiction that the husband and wife are a single legal entity. A valid marriage is an essential element. When a court grants an absolute divorce, the marriage is dissolved, and the legal basis for the tenancy by the entirety ceases to exist. By operation of law in Maryland, the ownership automatically converts to a tenancy in common. Each former spouse then holds an undivided one-half interest in the property, and the right of survivorship is terminated.

B. Their ownership rights terminate.

This is incorrect. The divorce action re-characterizes the form of ownership between the parties; it does not extinguish their vested property rights.

C. The one who records title first gets the property.

This is incorrect. Recording statutes establish priority of title against subsequent bona fide purchasers or lienholders, not ownership rights between existing co-owners after a divorce.

D. They become joint tenants with right of survivorship.

This is incorrect. The right of survivorship is a key feature of tenancy by the entirety that is extinguished upon divorce. The default conversion is to tenancy in common.

1. University of Maryland Extension. (2022). Title to Real Property: How to Own Your Home (Publication FS-701). "If the couple divorces, the tenancy by the entirety is automatically terminated and becomes a tenancy in common." (Page 2, Section: Tenancy by the Entirety).

2. Maryland Case Law. The principle is firmly established in Maryland common law. In the case of Columbian Carbon Co. v. Kight, 207 Md. 203, 114 A.2d 28 (1955), the Maryland Court of Appeals affirmed that an absolute divorce converts a tenancy by the entirety into a tenancy in common.

3. University of Baltimore School of Law. (Courseware for Property Law). Course materials on Maryland property law consistently teach that the dissolution of a marriage by divorce severs a tenancy by the entirety, resulting in the former spouses holding the property as tenants in common. This is a foundational principle covered in first-year property law courses. (e.g., Property Law I Syllabus, Section on Concurrent Estates).