Joint property ownership

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Overview

You must decide which type of joint ownership you want if you buy, inherit or become a trustee of a property with someone else. You tell HM Land Registry about this when you register the property.

This guide is also available in Welsh (Cymraeg).

You can own a property as either ‘joint tenants’ or ‘tenants in common’.

The type of ownership affects what you can do with the property if your relationship with a joint owner breaks down, or if one owner dies.

You can get legal advice from someone who specialises in property.

Joint tenants

As joint tenants (sometimes called ‘beneficial joint tenants’):

  • you have equal rights to the whole property
  • the property automatically goes to the other owners if you die
  • you cannot pass on your ownership of the property in your will

Tenants in common

As tenants in common:

  • you can own different shares of the property
  • your share of the property does not automatically go to the other owners if you die
  • you can pass on your share of the property in your will

Change your type of ownership

You can change from being either:

There’s no fee to do this.

You can also change from sole ownership to tenants in common or joint tenants, for example, if you want to add your partner as joint owner. This is called transferring ownership.

Sell the property if the other owner has lost mental capacity

You’ll have to apply to the Court of Protection if you want to sell the property but the other owner has lost ‘mental capacity’.

View a printable version of the whole guide

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