Joint Tenants Definition In Law In Chicago
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Some states, such as Illinois, presume that if property owned by two or more individuals is not clearly titled (such as without mention of a survivorship provision - see joint ownership with survivorship below), it is owned in tenancy in common.
Joint tenancy is most common among married couples because it helps property owners avoid probate. Without joint tenancy, a spouse would have to wait for their partner's Last Will to go through a legal review process—which can take months or even years.
Joint tenants have a 100% stake in the property. Tenants in Common have a stake that is reflective of their share. For example, a tenant with a 60% share in the property only owns 60% of that property.
Unlike joint tenancy, where each owner has an equal share, tenancy in common allows for specific parts or percentages of the property to be owned by each tenant. This type of ownership is often seen in situations where family members or business partners want to maintain separate shares.
In general, joint assets are held in joint tenancy (with right of survivorship) or tenancy in common. A joint tenancy (with right of survivorship) is a form of ownership by 2 or more persons in which each person owns the whole asset. Real property held in joint tenancy is usually identified as such on the deed.
One of the rights of a joint tenant in real property is to sever the tenancy by conveyance of his interest, in which event, the grantee becomes a cotenant with the remaining joint tenant, and the chief attribute of joint tenancy, viz, the survivor's right to take to the en- tire interest, is hereby destroyed.
Further tenancy in common allows parties to hold unequal shares of property interest. Joint tenancy requires each co-owner to hold equal shares of property. Further, co-owners must transfer the deed at the same time. In this sense, joint tenancy is rigid compared to tenancy in common.
Tenants in common gives you more protections and you can specify in a deed of trust what you would want to happen in the event of relationship breakdown (eg if one of you has first dibs to buy the other out, or a time limit on doing so etc) which is definitely better to decide now whilst you still like each other!
One of the rights of a joint tenant in real property is to sever the tenancy by conveyance of his interest, in which event, the grantee becomes a cotenant with the remaining joint tenant, and the chief attribute of joint tenancy, viz, the survivor's right to take to the en- tire interest, is hereby destroyed.
In order to sell or convey the entire property, all owners must join in the transfer. As tenants in common, the co-owners have the right to sell, gift, or transfer their interest in the property without the other owners' permission.
