Legal News | 21.05.25

Buying jointly – choosing whether to hold property as Joint Tenants or Tenants in Common

When buying a property with one or more others, you will be asked to elect how you want to own the property. This is an important decision to make. There are two options you can choose between, Joint Tenants or Tenants in Common, and the implications of each choice are detailed below.

Join Tenants 

When you own a property as Joint Tenants, you will do so jointly with the other owners without any distinct shares. This means if one owner dies, both their legal and beneficial ownership automatically passes to the surviving owner (or owners), regardless of any provisions or wishes within the deceased owner’s Will.

If you elect to hold the property as Joint Tenants, and later decide this no longer matches your wishes, you can change to owning as Tenants in Common. This is called ‘severing’ the Joint Tenancy and can be done by serving a written notice on the other owners. The Land Registry Title will also need to be updated to reflect this change.

Tenants in Common

When you own a property as Tenants in Common, each owner elects to own a distinct portion of the property (e.g. 50/50 shares).  If one of the owners dies, his or her share would not pass automatically to the other owner, but instead to whoever is nominated in that individual’s Will or, in the absence of a Will, under the rules of intestacy.

It is therefore important, if you choose to hold property as Tenants in Common, that you put a valid Will in place and that you review this regularly to ensure it continues to accurately reflects your wishes.

If you elect to own the property as Tenants in Common and your ownership wishes are more complex than a simple division of ownership, you can also choose to put in place a Deed of Trust to reflect this.

If you are looking for a conveyancer to handle your joint purchase, please contact our Residential Property team at property@wansbroughs.com | 01380 733367.