Co-ownership

The treatment of your interest in that property on your death is very different depending on how the property is held during your lifetime, so it is essential to ensure that you are holding it in the right way to make sure that it passes on death in the way that you’d want.

Joint Tenants

If a property is held as joint tenants, then the co-owners will not own a distinct share, and when one of them dies the share of the deceased will pass automatically to the surviving co-owner – even if the deceased co-owner left a Will – under the Rules of Survivorship.

This could pose a problem if the decease co-owner wanted the property to pass to someone else on their death i.e. someone named in their Will.

Holding a property as joint tenants can also be problematic if a relationship breaks down. As there are no distinct shares of ownership in joint tenancy, it will be assumed that you own the property equally, regardless of whether you actually made unequal contributions to the purchase.

Tenants in Common

If a property is held as tenants in common, the co-owners will own distinct shares in the property which will pass into their own estates on death and under the terms of their own Will or the Intestacy Rules (if they don’t have a valid Will).

Co-owning a property in this way can be useful where parties have made unequal financial contributions and/or where parties wish to ensure that the property passes into their own estates on death, and not to the surviving co-owner (i.e. to ensure that it passes to their children from an earlier relationship).

Where co-owners have made contributions to the property either by way of the initial purchase price or works carried out later, it is important to record these unequal contributions by way of a Declaration of Trust, to ensure that the co-owners’ intentions as to how the net proceeds should be split on sale are clear and unambiguous.

Can I change the method of ownership?

Yes, and changing how you own a property may be necessary if you wish to use your Will to protect your share of a property for your chosen beneficiaries.

However, it is important to seek specialist advice should there be a need to change the method of ownership.

For further information regarding the above or if you would like to discuss a Wills & Probate related query with one of the team, please call us on freephone 0800 011 6666 or e-mail the team at legal@timms-law.com.