Joint Ownership Advice 1. Joint Tenancy The first type of joint ownership is commonly used by married couples with no commitments to parties outside the marriage (e.g. children by a previous marriage, etc.). However, that is not to say that you are obliged to use it but it is very common. In the event of either owner dying, your share would then pass to the survivor automatically without being passed under a Will. It does not mean you need not make a Will in respect of your other assets however and does not affect any tax liability (currently there is no inheritance tax liability between spouses on death). However, the most important point of which you should be aware is the fact that normally you will automatically be deemed to hold a half share each in the property no matter what your respective contributions to the property either in hard cash or by way of other maintenance or contribution towards the household generally. Obviously matrimonial law can affect the ownership situation but at least at first instance the Court would have regard to the joint tenancy and assume you have a 50% share each. This kind of ownership can be transferred into the second type of ownership by giving formal notice of "severance" of the joint tenancy at any time but it does not affect the shares up to that date which will still be 50:50. 2. Tenancy in Common This is only type of ownership you can have if you wish to have unequal shares. It can, however, also be used where there are equal shares but you do not want your share to pass automatically to the survivor in the event of your death. In that event it is vital you leave a Will to specify how you wish to deal with your estate. Friends buying together would invariably choose to be tenants in common. If you are joint owners in a relationship but not married, you are strongly advised not to adopt joint tenancy but to adopt a tenancy in common and to have a separate Declaration of Trust drawn up to record your respective shares in the property . The reason is because if you should break up or fall out you will not go through the normal formalities necessary in order to break up a marriage (e.g. the financial settlements necessary as a result). Therefore, if in the future you have another partner and one of you dies, you will find that your share of the property will pass to your former partner. Clearly this could be extremely upsetting for all concerned and you are urged to avoid a joint tenancy as an unmarried couple.

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