Simon Spurgeon

Co-Ownership

Simon Spurgeon

Track/Slide 4

However, even if the four unities can be established, it does not necessarily follow that there will be a joint tenancy. This is because there may be wording in the transfer or other document of title which indicates that the parties intended to have individual or separate shares in the property, even though the property may not be physically partitioned or divided. For instance, if the property is left in the will as a half-share to A and a quarter-share to B and C, this would indicate that they had individual shares in the property and therefore it would not be possible to hold the property under a joint tenancy.

Examples of these forms of wording can be seen in the case of Payne v Webb. Their property was to be held in equal shares, in Lewen v Dodd where property was to be held equally, and Peat v Chapman where property was to be divided between various co-owners. In all these cases the courts held that the wording was enough to establish that a joint tenancy was not intended and the property was to be held as a tenancy in common, even though the four unities had been established.

A final thing to look at in relation to joint tenancies is the right of survivorship. Survivorship only applies to joint tenants and is not applicable to tenancies in common. It is also a very important concept. Because joint tenants don’t own individual shares in the property, then they can’t leave their interest in the property in their will and their interest won’t pass under the intestacy rules if they leave no will. Instead, when a joint tenant dies, the remaining joint tenants automatically acquire their interest and we will look at how this operates in practice in a bit more detail later on in the lecture. This is why traditionally it was held that husbands and wives should hold property as joint tenants, whereas other people with perhaps less secure relationships should hold property as tenants in common. As we will see when we look at how you sever a joint tenancy, survivorship is quite often the reason why, in the event of a divorce or separation, the joint tenancy is severed.