Walternative Views - Real Estate Lecture: Concurrent Ownership

Rights of a spouse where there is no community property:

Dower and curtesy.

Dower is a right of the wife to a share in the husband's separate property on his death. Under the common law, it was traditionally a one third interest in any real estate the husband had ever owned during his life. Now, dower, if it exists at all, is purely statutory. Dower is inchoate, which means that no rights exist in the wife until the husband dies before she dies. Nevertheless, if a husband wishes to transfer any of his separate property during his lifetime, his wife must separately consent and waive or convey her dower rights for husband to be able to transfer any interest, including a mortgage. If the wife doesn't waive, she retains a right in the property which she can reach if and when her husband dies. There are 3 requirements: valid marriage, husband owns property, husband dies first.
Curtesy is the right of a husband in the wife's separate property if she predeceased him. This is like dower. But instead of getting a one third interest, the husband gets a life estate in the entire property, for the balance of his life. He could not effectively sell the property except that he could sell the life estate subject to the reverter.

Elective shares:

Election to take a share of the property of spouse, owned at death. This is a substitute for dower and curtesy, neither of which exist in Oregon. The surviving spouse may take a share of whatever property the spouse owned at the time of death, even if there was a will leaving them nothing.
Election to take a share of all property of spouse acquired during marriage. This resembles dower in that a spouse must consent to the transfer of property owned separately by the other spouse, for the transfer to be good.