Joint Tenants or Tenants in Common?

Joint Tenants or Tenants in Common?

As a prospective buyer, buying with another person can be an attractive option, allowing you to gather a bigger deposit and share your mortgage repayments. In England and Wales, there are two types of co-ownership and these are Joint Tenants and Tenants in Common.

Joint Tenants

Holding the property as joint tenants means each person has a 100% stake in the property’s value. If one of the co-owners dies, then this share is automatically passed to the other owner. This is known as the rule of survivorship and it means you can’t leave the property to someone else in a will. This is commonly used by married couples.

Tenants in Common

As tenants in common, you can own shares in the property independently of each other, and these shares don’t have to be equally sized. The rule of survivorship does not apply, and you can leave your share in the property to whoever you wish. It is important that you make a Will so that your share in the property passes in accordance with your wishes. Depending on your financial contribution, a separate document called a Declaration of Trust may be necessary to set out clearly the contributions made by each party to the purchase and the share of the property which belongs to each of them as a result. 

Severance of Joint Tenancy

If your relationship with your co-owner breaks down, you may want to sever the joint tenancy. This is a simple process and once done the right of survivorship no longer applies. You can then leave your share in the property to whoever you wish, and this can be done with or without your co-owner’s permission. Your co-owner will be made aware of the change of ownership by the land registry.  

If you are a prospective buyer and require further information, please contact our Conveyancing Team on 0116 2554855.