Tenants in common vs joint tenants: which should co-buyers choose?

In England and Wales, two or more people can own a home in only two ways. You are either joint tenants or tenants in common. Scotland uses different terminology — joint ownership with or without a survivorship destination — but the underlying choice is the same.

The difference is not about who lives there or who pays the mortgage. It is about how ownership is divided on paper and what happens to a person's stake when they die or want out.

Joint tenants own the whole property together, as one unit, with no individual shares. Tenants in common each own a distinct, quantified share — 50/50, 70/30, 40/40/20 — and each share is that person's own asset to leave in a will or sell.

Most married couples are joint tenants. Most friends, siblings, unmarried partners with different deposits, and parent-and-child buyers are better served by tenants in common.

Survivorship is the single most consequential difference, and the one most co-buyers discover too late. Under a joint tenancy, when one owner dies their interest evaporates into the surviving owners' hands automatically, on the date of death, outside the will and outside probate.

That is often exactly what a married couple wants. It is almost never what two friends want. If you buy with a friend as joint tenants and they die, their family inherits nothing of the house — you get all of it. Reverse it, and your family gets nothing.

Tenants in common has no survivorship. Each share is part of that person's estate, so it passes under their will, or under the intestacy rules if there is no will. That means your co-owner's beneficiary — a sibling, a partner, a child — becomes your new co-owner.

Neither outcome is automatically better. What matters is that you choose it deliberately, and that you each write a will saying where your share should go.

If one of you is putting in a £40,000 deposit and the other £12,000, a joint tenancy quietly erases that difference. There are no shares to be unequal — you each own all of it, together. On a later sale the proceeds are split down the middle unless you have separate evidence of a different arrangement.

Tenants in common lets you write the real numbers into the ownership itself. Shares can reflect deposits, ongoing mortgage contributions, a renovation someone paid for, or a blend of all three.

Shares do not have to match deposits exactly. Two common approaches: set percentages that mirror total money in, or hold 50/50 and record the larger deposit as a loan repaid first on sale. Both work; they just need writing down.

That is the job of a Deed of Trust — a short document signed alongside the purchase setting out each person's share, how costs are met, and what happens on exit. The Land Registry title records that you are tenants in common; the Deed of Trust records the actual split.

This is not a life sentence. A joint tenancy can be converted to tenants in common, which is called severing the joint tenancy. It can be done by agreement, or unilaterally by one owner serving written notice of severance on the others.

In practice it means applying to HM Land Registry, usually with Form SEV, to enter the Form A restriction on the title. Severance is frequently done during a separation, or when owners realise survivorship does not match their intentions.

Severing converts the ownership into equal shares by default. If you want an unequal split, you need a separate deed recording it, agreed by everyone. One owner cannot unilaterally award themselves 70%.

Going the other way — tenants in common to joint tenants — is also possible but needs all owners to agree, since everyone is giving up an individually owned asset. It is far less common.

Whichever route you pick, the mortgage does not change. Co-owners on a joint mortgage are jointly and severally liable, meaning the lender can pursue any one of you for the whole monthly payment. Owning 25% does not cap your liability at 25%.

Stamp duty is charged on the whole purchase price, not per person, and the rate depends on the buyers' circumstances. If any buyer already owns residential property anywhere in the world, the higher-rates surcharge can apply to the entire transaction, and first-time buyer relief is lost if any single buyer is not a first-time buyer.

Selling your individual share is theoretically possible as a tenant in common, but the practical market for a part-share in a shared home is close to non-existent. Assume the realistic exits are a co-owner buying you out, or a joint sale — and put a mechanism for both in your agreement.

If you cannot agree, an owner can apply to the court under section 14 of the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 for an order to sell. It is slow and expensive, which is exactly why a written exit route is worth the effort up front.

Choose tenants in common if deposits are unequal, if you are not married or in a civil partnership, if you have children from an earlier relationship, if a parent is contributing, or if you simply want your share to pass under your will. For most co-buying arrangements, this is the answer.

Choose joint tenants if you want the survivor to inherit the whole property automatically, you are content with no individual shares, and money in is genuinely equal — typically married couples and civil partners.

Do not let it be decided by default. Tell your conveyancer which you want in writing, and ask them to confirm what the completed TR1 and the registered title actually say afterwards.

And whatever you choose, pair it with two documents: a Deed of Trust setting out the shares and exits, and a will for each owner. Nothing here is advice for your situation — take your own legal advice before you commit.