Scotland
Joint Ownership with or without Survivorship
Properties in Scotland are purchased either jointly, in which case percentage shares can be varied, or jointly with a survivorship clause (or survivorship destination). This affects what happens to the shares in the property if any of the joint owners die. The survivorship clause is a formal legal clause that can go into the deed in your joint names when you buy a house. If there is a survivorship clause, your share in the home will pass automatically to the other joint owner(s) if you die. Having a survivorship clause also means that you won’t be able to leave your share of the house to anyone else in your will. If you don’t have a survivorship clause, you can leave your share of the house to anyone you choose in your will.
This is not dissimilar to the general situation in England (see below) and the issues which arise if the property is Jointly Owned no survivorship and Jointly Owned with survivorship are similar to Tenants in Common and Joint Tenancy in England respectively.
England
Legally, there are two types of joint ownership, joint equity or property co-buying. You can either own the property as ‘joint tenants’ or as ‘tenants in common’. Do not be put off by the terminology. It has nothing to do with tenancies and applies to freehold or leasehold land. The terminology for the types of home ownership vary between Scotland and England
Joint tenancy
Under this agreement the joint owners together own the whole property and do not have a particular share in it. If one of the owners dies the other automatically becomes the sole owner. This would be the case even if a will had been made leaving the deceased owner’s ‘share’ to someone other than the co-owner.
Tenancy in common
This is the opposite of joint tenancy in that the tenants in common each have a definite share in the property. For example, A and B could own the property in equal shares, or A could own one fifth with B owning four fifths. This would be the most appropriate agreement where people want to own a property in separate pre-determined shares.
Under this form of ownership, if one of the owners dies, his or her share of the property will pass on to whoever he or she specifies in a Will. It is strongly recommended that a Will be made when buying a property as Tenants in Common.
If a Will is not made, then your share of the property will be distributed in accordance with the rules of intestacy (dying without leaving a valid Will).
Which form of joint ownership should you opt for?
This depends upon personal choice and your particular circumstances. The joint tenancy is most commonly adopted between married couples where there is perceived to be no advantage in defining separate shares in the property and where it would be the intention that on the first death the property would automatically pass to the surviving spouse. The problem with this is that the whole of the property will pass into the survivor’s estate upon first death, which may then mean that the property will be assessed for care costs and also have Inheritance tax implications on second death.
The alternative basis of a tenancy in common will often be used between brothers and sisters, parents and children, unmarried couples, business partners and the like. In these relationships it might be desirable for specific shares in the property to be identified and for each owner to be able to leave his or her share in the property to a named person other than the owner.
Owning your property as Tenants In Common also forms part of the strategy in avoiding losing your home to care costs.