North Carolina § 39-7 - Instruments affecting married person's title; joinder of spouse; exceptions.

§ 39-7. Instruments affecting married person's title; joinder of spouse; exceptions.

In order to waive the elective life estate of either husband or wife as provided for in G.S. 29-30, every conveyance or other instrument affecting the estate, right or title of any married person in lands, tenements or hereditaments must be executed by such husband or wife, and due proof or acknowledgment thereof must be made and certified as provided by law. A married person may bargain, sell, lease, mortgage, transfer and convey any of his or her separate real estate without joinder or other waiver by his or her spouse if such spouse is incompetent and a guardian or trustee has been appointed as provided by the laws of North Carolina, and if the appropriate instrument is executed by the married person and the guardian or trustee of the incompetent spouse and is probated and registered in accordance with law, it shall convey all the estate and interest as therein intended of the married person in the land conveyed, free and exempt from the elective life estate as provided in G.S. 29-30 and all other interests of the incompetent spouse. Subsection (a) shall not be construed to require the spouse's joinder or other waiver of the elective life estate of such spouse as provided for in G.S. 29-30 where a different provision is made or provided for in the General Statutes including, but not limited to, G.S. 39-13, 39-13.3, 39-13.4, 31A-1(d), and 52-10. History (C.C.P., s. 429; subsec. 6; 1868-9, c. 277, s. 15; Code, s. 1256; 1899, c. 235, s. 9; Rev., s. 952; C.S., s. 997; 1945, c. 73, s. 4; 1957, c. 598, s. 3; 1965, c. 855.) Cross References. - As to property of married women secured to them, see N.C. Const., Art. X, § 4. As to abolition of dower, see G.S. 29-4 . As to acknowledgment at different times and places and before different officers, and order of acknowledgment, see G.S. 39-8 . For validation of certain instruments executed without private examination of married woman, see G.S. 39-13.1 . For repeal of laws requiring private examination of married women, see G.S. 47-14.1 . As to husband's acknowledgement and wife's acknowledgement before the same officer, see G.S. 47-40 . As to married persons generally, see G.S. 52-1 et seq. Legal Periodicals. - For comment on this section prior to the 1957 and 1965 amendments, see 12 N.C.L. Rev. 68 (1934). For note on wife's conveyance of her realty by virtue of husband's power of attorney, see 31 N.C.L. Rev. 228 (1953). For comment on the enforceability of marital contracts, see 47 N.C.L. Rev. 815 (1969).