Conveyancing

Joint Ownership of Property

Where land or property is bought in the names of more than one person there is a choice between owning the property as joint tenants or as tenants in common. These are both legal expressions and the word ‘tenant’ has nothing to do with a lease or tenancy of the property. It is necessary to state in the purchase deed or in a separate deed the form of joint ownership you require.

Joint Tenants

The main feature of this form of joint ownership is that it carries a right of survivorship i.e. on the death of one joint owner, ownership of the whole of the jointly owned property or land passes automatically to the surviving joint owner rather than to the estate or under the will of the one who has died. There is also a presumption that each joint owner has contributed equally towards the purchase and that each is entitled to a 50% share in the net proceeds of sale when it is disposed of.

The automatic right of survivorship makes this method of co-ownership both suitable and attractive to joint owners who are married to each other although it may be unsuitable where one spouse is individually wealthy and who, for tax purposes, would not want his or her share in the property to go to the spouse on death. 

Tenants in Common

The main feature of this form of joint ownership is that each joint owner ‘owns’ a separate, quantifiable share in the property or land which they can dispose of during their lifetime (e.g. by way of a gift), or on their death by will or on intestacy, to someone other than the joint owner. The respective shares of the joint owners can be set out in the purchase deed or a separate document e.g. it may state that one joint owner owns 30% and the other 70% or each own 50%.

This method of ownership may be appropriate where the joint owners are not married to each other and are contributing different amounts towards the purchase. It may also be appropriate where each joint owner wants his or her share to go to someone other than the other joint owner on death e.g. where 2 brothers buy land jointly or business partners buy business premises jointly. It may also be appropriate where the joint owners are married to one another but one (or both) has children from a previous relationship whom they would like to inherit some part of the proceeds of sale of the property on their death.

N.B. where this method of joint ownership is used it is advisable to make a will disposing of your share in the property as soon as possible and we can assist you in preparing this.