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.
One of the critical differences between a tenancy in common and a joint tenancy is that a joint tenancy has survivorship rights, but a tenancy in common does not. When one tenant in common dies, his or her interest passes to heirs. In contrast, if a joint tenant dies, the interest passes to the other joint tenants.
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.
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.
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.
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!
Joint tenancy is a type of joint ownership of property in the field of property law , where each owner has an undivided interest in the property. This type of ownership creates a right of survivorship , which means that when one owner dies, the other owners absorb the deceased owner's interest .
Ownership as tenants in common permits owners to jointly own property, but each person's interest may be sold or transferred or passed through inheritance laws.
Joint tenancy should be used with extreme caution. It can subject a co- owner to unnecessary taxes and liabili- ty for the other co-owner's debts. It can also deprive heirs of bequeathed prop- erty and, in California, leave the joint tenant without right of survivorship.
The difference between a joint tenancy and tenancy in common is significant. Under a joint tenancy with rights to survivorship, upon the death of the first owner, it automatically passes to the surviving owner. In a tenancy in common situation, you each own 50% of the property.