✧ It’s not always an easy process for two or more individuals deciding to be co-owners of the property. It is a frequent situation when a husband and a wife or a mother and a child share the ownership in the real estate property.
✧ How can they appear on a title? If two individuals buy the property for their benefit, they take the title to the property as joint tenants or tenants in common.
√ Joint Tenants are considered to acquire equal proportions in the property. One owner can’t sell his/her interest without the express consent from the other. They are treated by law as holding the interest in the property as a single owner.
√ What if one joint owner wants to sell the property, but the other is against it? They will have to go through the process called “severance” to change their capacity from joint tenants to tenants in common.
√ Joint Tenants have survivorships’ rights.☝️ It means if one of the owners passes away, the other one acquires the share belonged to the deceased automatically through the process called “right of survivorship”. The interest in the property of the deceased person will not form a part of his/her estate as it will be passed directly to the joint owner.
√ Tenancy in common allows owners to have an unequal interest in the property, for example, one owner holds 45% and the other holds 55% of interests or any other percentage. Co-owner’s consent is not required when one of them wants to sell his/her share of the property.
√ When a co-owner passes away, the share of his/her property will form a part of the deceased owner’s estate and will be distributed under his/her Will if available.
√ It is advisable for co-owners to consider entering into a Co-Ownership Agreement. ? The Agreement regulates the co-owners relations concerning the day to day management of the property and protects investments of each owner.
√ For example, it defines how co-owners pay general repair, mortgage, utilities, insurance expenses, how they occupy the property, how they buy-out the property if one owner wants to sell, how they settle disputes, what’s will happen in case of the incapacity of the death of a co-owner, etc.
Every situation is unique, and it is worth to know all the aspects of the ownership before acquiring the property. Have questions? You may book a consultation with Anna Gurevich
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