If you own your property as “Joint Tenants” with another person, you may decide that you want to change that joint ownership, so your property is then owned as either “Tenants in Common in Equal Shares” or “Tenants in Common in Unequal Shares” instead. The equal or unequal shares shall depend upon whether you wish to own your property together with another person so that you each own a distinct equal half-share of that property (perhaps because you have each contributed the same to it), or unequally if one person has contributed greater financially to that property than the other. For simplicity within this article, both shall be referenced as “Tenants in Common”.
Owning your property jointly as Tenants in Common will then enable you to gift your share of your home to whomever you wish within your Will after your death. It is important to add that when a property is owned as Joint Tenants and there is provision within your Will to provide a right for someone to live in your share of your property after your death (your spouse/partner who is NOT the biological parent of your children for example), AND THEN provision for your share of your property to pass to a third party or parties thereafter (your biological children for example), then an existing Joint Tenancy ownership would need to be changed to Tenants in Common ownership so that your share of your property can pass for the benefit of more than one person at different times.
What is the Difference Between Owning your Property as Joint Tenants or as Tenants in Common?
Joint Tenancy
If you own your property as Joint Tenants with another person, this means that both owners own 100% of the property together, rather than each owning a specific share. All the owners are legally one unit, and each has equal rights to the whole property. If the property is sold, then each co-owner is entitled to an equal share of the net sale proceeds.
A Joint Tenancy creates rights of survivorship. The result is that when one owner dies, the remaining owner(s) will automatically own the whole property. This means that a Joint Tenant cannot gift their interest in the property to anyone other than the remaining co-owner(s) of that property after their death.
Tenants in Common
If you own your property as Tenants in Common, each co-owner (sometimes, more than 2 people co-own a property together, but this is uncommon) has a distinct specific share in that property.
Under a Tenancy in Common ownership, each owner can deal with their share in the property separately, allowing them to gift their share to their own selected beneficiaries in their Will (e.g. biological children rather than stepchildren). This also provides more opportunities for planning to protect your share of your property by using a protective Trust in your Will. It is very common and popular in modern society to ensure that if you die before the co-owner of your property (usually a spouse or partner), then you can provide an exclusive, unrestricted, and guaranteed right for the co-owner of your property to live in your share of it (or any subsequent replacement property) for the remainder of their life, but you can also provide in your Will that once the co-owner of your property is also deceased, then your share shall then pass to your children. The reason you may wish to do this is so that your share of your property cannot later be lost to care fees for your surviving spouse/partner, or lost to a future spouse of theirs, or passed to their children if those children are not your biological children, etc.
Can a Property Ownership be Changed from Joint Tenants to Tenants in Common?
Yes, and this does NOT change your legal ownership of the property. Should you ever separate from your spouse/partner, then your specific share ownership of that property remains unchanged. Also, there is usually no cost to change from one form of joint ownership to the other, you may change your joint ownership in either direction, and/or you can reverse any change in your joint ownership status in the future, if required.
Must a Change to Joint Ownership be Mutually Agreed Between the Property Owners?
No. There may be a situation where a home is owned jointly between 2 people, then they become estranged. One co-owner may wish to own the shared property as Tenants in Common so that they may leave their share of it to their children rather than their estranged co-owner, and the other may refuse to agree to do so. Then, this can be done by only one of the co-owners and is known as a UNILATERAL Severance of Joint Tenancy.
Is it the Same Process if my Property is NOT Registered with the Official Land Registry Department?
Since 1991, it has been a requirement that any property newly built or purchased from another person or people must be officially registered with the government department known as H.M. (His Majesty’s) Land Registry (HMLR). This provides independent confirmation of who owns the property, as well as confirmation of any unusual terms of that ownership, jointly or not. If you have owned your property since before 1991, then it may not be registered with HMLR.
Nevertheless, you can convert from Joint Tenancy ownership to Tenants in Common ownership WITHOUT your property being officially registered. You would simply not have an independent central record, with HMLR, of how you jointly own your property.
For further information WITHOUT consultation fees nor obligation, then please visit trfwills.co.uk.
TRF Wills (TRF) was created by Michael Cotterill in 2005. He is a member of the Society of Will Writers and registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office.