Co-Ownership
If you are buying jointly with someone else, you will need to think carefully about how the property is going to be held from a legal title point of view.
There are two ways of owning property: as Joint Tenants or as Tenants in Common.
The distinguishing feature of a Joint Tenancy is the right of survivorship, meaning that upon the death of a Joint Tenant, the ownership of the property will pass to the surviving joint tenant, regardless of the provisions of any Wills. The entire interest in the property will ultimately vest in the last surviving joint tenant.
As Tenants in Common, each co-owner will hold a quantified proportion of the interest in the property, and each co-owner’s proportion is capable of being left to a third party by Will or under the intestacy rules. The presumption is that the shares in a property will be held in the same proportion to each co-owner’s contribution to the purchase. It is very important that the shares of each tenant in common are expressly agreed and recorded in a Declaration of Trust to avoid any confusion in the future.
