How To Change From Joint Tenants To Tenants In Common

Do you own a property with someone? 

Are you joint tenants?

Do you need to protect your share of the property?

Perhaps because you fear the relationship will break down?

Maybe it already has and you want to ensure that your loved ones will inherit your equity.

This is a common scenario.

As you’re here I’ll assume you’re wondering how to change from joint tenants to tenants in common.

Good news.  It’s pretty easy.

Changing From Joint Tenants To Tenants In Common

There are several ways that you can change from joint tenants to tenants in common.

If the joint owners are happy for this to take place it can be agreed mutually between them.

Unfortunately that’s not always the case.

If one party is refusing to separate ownership of the property in this way, or if the relationship has broken down and that party is not cooperating, the quickest and easiest way to do to it is to serve a “notice of severance”.

How To Change From Joint Tenants To Tenants In Common By Serving A Notice Of Severance

The process is relatively easy:

• The title to the property needs to be checked at the Land Registry;
• If all is in hand with the title a written notice needs to be prepared;
• That notice needs to comply with the Law of Property Act ;
• It needs to clearly set out what the effect of the notice will be;
• It needs to be served upon the other joint owner in the correct way;
• Proof of service should be recorded;
• A restriction should then be added to the property’s title to confirm the change;
• That requires a short application to the Land Registry.

That might not sound too straightforward, but it shouldn’t take a specialist that long at all.

It’s always advisable to get a professional to do this for you to avoid any errors that could occur.

Why Change From Joint Tenants To Tenants In Common?

The most common reason why people ask me how to change from joint tenants to tenants in common is because they want to avoid the laws of “survivorship”.

Joint Tenants

Under the laws of survivorship, upon the death of one joint tenant, that person’s equity in the property will pass automatically to the other joint tenant.

That means that the deceased party’s interest in the property will not be inherited by their children, or anyone else they’d like to leave it to

That is the case even if the deceased party made a will which states that their share should left to a particular person.

Tenants In Common

The same is not true when a property is held as tenants in common.

In that scenario the deceased’s interest in the property is not caught by the laws of survivorship.

Instead, upon their death, that party’s interest will pass to whomever it has been left to in their will.

For many, it’s really important to change from joint tenants to tenants in common to ensure that their loved ones will inherit everything to which they’re entitled in the future.

That is especially the case following the breakdown of a relationship.

How Long Does It Take To Change From Joint Tenants To Tenants In Common?

This is another question that I get asked regularly.

Fortunately, if you’re serving a notice to sever the joint tenancy, it doesn’t take long at all.

It’s simply a case of using the correct wording in the notice, specifying the correct date in the notice and serving it correctly.

That is in contrast to most of the  other ways in which a joint tenancy can be severed, because with most of those it is a matter of interpretation as to whether a joint tenancy has been severed, which can take quite some time to establish.

Changing from joint tenants to tenants in common by serving notice is far more certain.

It can be carried out unilaterally (i.e. the joint owner serving the notice doesn’t need the agreement of the other joint owner to do it) meaning that it can be completed very quickly.

How Much Does It Cost To Change From Joint Tenants To Tenants In Common?

Another good question.

The answer is that it depends, but shouldn’t cost too much.

I’ve set out above a summary of the process that’s required to ensure that everything is carried out properly.

As you can see, there are a few things to do, but in most cases the situation is relativity straightforward and a solicitor should be able to give you a fixed price to carry out the work that’s required.

Obviously every case is different and there can be situations where matters are slightly more complicated, and therefore require more time and more expense, however those scenarios are likely to be quite rare.

If the purpose of changing from joint tenants to tenants in common is to protect your interest for the  future the benefit of a loved one, the relatively modest cost of getting this right when compared to the value of the equity that you’re protecting will usually be well worth it.

Why Else Might You Change From Joint Tenants To Tenants In Common?

Another common reason to sever the joint tenancy, which often goes hand in hand with avoiding the laws of survivorship, is when you want to force the sale of a jointly owned property.

Forcing The Sale Of A Jointly Owned Property

If, for example, you own a property as joint tenants with a friend or an ex partner and the relationship has broken down, it’s quite common for one party to leave the property to live elsewhere.

Sadly this is a very common scenario, and leaves one party having to pay rent and outgoings elsewhere, whilst also still having to make mortgage payments for the joint property that they no longer occupy.

Often, the party remaining at the property will ignore all of your requests to resolve matters amicably.

That is unsustainable for most people, and my team and I are often instructed to force the uncooperative party to sell the property (or to purchase  our client’s share of it).

I won’t go into the details of that here, but if you’d like to know more about what it  involves please read my article How To Force The Sale Of A Jointly Owned Property.

As you can imagine, following the breakdown of a relationship some people act on emotion and can be quite difficult to deal with.  Serving notice upon them to sever a joint tenancy can be a good way to focus their mind whilst also protecting one’s interest in a property.

Other Ways Of Changing From Joint Tenants To Tenants In Common

As I mentioned earlier, there are a few other ways to convert ownership from joint tenants to tenants in common.

They are, for the most part, open to interpretation (and therefore argument) meaning that they can be more time consuming to establish, but I’ve set out brief details of them below for completeness.

By Agreement

I touched upon this earlier.  If the relationship between the joint owners is amicable, and their minds and wishes are aligned, there is every chance that the ownership structure can be changed by agreement.

By “Acting On One’s Share”

This is a tricky concept to grasp, and is quite rare to encounter, but essentially involves destroying something known as the “unity of title” between the  joint owners.  I’ll leave it at that!

By Mutual Conduct

Ownership as joint tenants can be converted into that of tenants in common  where a “course of dealing” is “sufficient to intimate that the interests of all [of the parties] were mutually treated as constituting a tenancy in common”.

As you can imagine, how conduct between parties should be treated can be very much open to interpretation.

By Third Parties

It is possible for a joint tenancy to be severed by the act of a third party, outside the control of the joint owners.

Common examples are when one of the owners is made bankrupt, or where a charging order is made against one of them, most likely in relation to a debt that they owe.

Summary – Your Options

It’s probably quite clear that the options available to sever a joint tenancy, other than serving notice, can be quite ambiguous and don’t give you the same level of control and certainty as serving notice.

In almost all cases, changing from joint tenants to tenants in common will be best achieved by serving notice.

Next Steps – Changing To Tenants In Common

I hope that this article has given you a good idea of how to change from joint tenants to tenants in common, whether that’s to protect your interest for the benefit of a loved one, or as part of getting the property sold so that you can move on with your life.

If you own a property jointly with someone; if the relationship has broken down; if you want to sever the joint tenancy to protect your equity;  or if the other party is being difficult, feel free to get in touch.  I’d be happy to discuss this with you.

Get In Touch

You can call me now on 020 7842 1452 

Email me at ian@propertydisputes.co.uk 

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I’ll then get in touch as soon as I can for a chat about your legal rights and options.

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