A property, be it personal or real, can be held by more than one person. When it so happens it creates joint ownership between the parties. Based on the arrangement between the parties, joint ownership can be of different types. One of these ownerships is of joint tenancy.
When two or more people wholly own the rights of a property it is called joint tenancy. As joint tenants, all the parties have full rights on the property without one party holding higher equity than the other. They have the right to use the entire property and every party must consent in the event of reselling the property. The joint tenancy also creates the right of survivorship between the parties. This means that upon the death of one of the parties, their rights vested in the property shall get transferred to the surviving owners.
A joint tenancy can be formed between family members, friends, spouses or business associates.
Joint tenancy declares an undivided right of the parties in the property. This means that there is no part of the parcel that one party holds over the other. Some other key features of Joint tenancy are:
The estate of joint tenants remains fixed for the entire period of joint tenancy. No rights and obligations of joint tenancy can be altered until the death of one joint tenant.
In the event of the sale of the property, the proceeds of the sale must get equally divided between all the joint owners. As they have equal shares in the property, no single joint owner can claim a share larger than the other.
The right of the deceased tenant is transferred to the remaining survivors until only one of them is left. In that case, the surviving owner gets the sole right on the entire property.
If the tenants do not wish to create the right of ownership, they should not opt for joint tenancy.
A joint tenancy must not be confused with tenancy in common. The tenants in joint tenancy have separate interests in the property and they can sell their part without seeking permission from the other tenants.
The owners in common tenancy can have a share in the property which is higher than that of other tenants.
Any of the joint tenants are not allowed to transfer their rights in the property to an outsider. If they do so, the joint tenancy shall be deemed to have been dissolved.
