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Legal Basics -
Property
Co-Ownership of Property - Joints tenants and tenants in common
If you buy a house jointly with someone else (your spouse, lover, a relative or friend) then it is important to decide whether you will own the property as joint tenants, or tenants-in-common. So what's the difference.
If you are joint tenants then each of you jointly own the entire property (technically its held by you in trust for yourselves!). The consequence of this is that upon the death of one party their interest in the property passes automatically to the survivor. It is therefore usual for married couples to buy a property as joint tenants.
If you decide to hold the property as tenants-in-common, then each owner has a distinct share in the property. If there are two owners this will automatically be half each, if three a third each, and so on. Alternatively you can decide between yourselves what share of the property belongs to each owner. For example if 2 friends were buying a property together and one contributed more to the purchase price than the other, this could be reflected in the respective shares of the property, say 75% and 25%. The important point is that each of the tenants in common always owns their share of the property, and are only entitled to that percentage of the sale proceeds, if sold during their lifetime. If they die then their share of the property forms part of their estate. It does not automatically pass to the other owner(s).
So if you are buying take a bit of time to think through your own situation and make sure you discuss it with your solicitor.
If you own your property as joint tenants and your relationship breaks down, one of the first things that you should do is to sever that joint tenancy. This converts the joint tenancy into a tenancy in common, which means that you will have a distinct share in the property that will NOT automatically pass to your former partner/spouse.
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