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Original poster

Joint tenants/tenants in common?

23 replies

saturdaynightgin · 01/10/2018 11:59

DP and I are in the process of buying our dream house. We are unmarried and have an almost 3 year old, with plans to TTC next year and marry within the next 3/4 years. We’ve both put equal amounts into the deposit and will be splitting all bills etc 50-50 as we did in our previous home. We’ve discussed joint tenancy/tenants in common and we’re both leaning towards the latter. Does anyone have any advice/experience? What are the pros/cons of both in your views? TIA

OP posts:

rosablue · 01/10/2018 12:16

If you'[re not married, I would cover my back and go in as tenants in common rather than joint tenants.

Not sure what any legal implications would be if one of you died and left your share to the other.

Or indeed, to anybody else (one thing to leave it in trust for your dc, giving you rights to live there together and then afterwards - needs to be sorted out in advance, but very different if say 3 years down the line you have a falling out and he leaves his share to his mum or brother or new girlfriend etc and where that leaves you. All stuff to be discussed in advance!)

Not a lawyer though so that's just my feelings rather than legal advice. Only thing I can think of is to work out exactly every different combination of scenario of things happening to you and what would happen in each case and any knock on effects on you/your dc, and if you need any legal protection set up in advance (you can't rely on mirror wills as you can make mirror wills and one of you can write a new will the next day and leave it all to the Cats Protection League and you're stuffed, there's nothing you can do, so need to set up trusts or stuff in advance...

namechangedtoday15 · 01/10/2018 15:40

Please get legal advice on this. An internet forum really isn't the place to ask a question like this (you need to properly understand the implications of both options).

Original poster

saturdaynightgin · 01/10/2018 16:19

Thanks rosa, we are leaning towards tenants in common at the moment.

name we have an appointment with our solicitor at the end of the week, this thread is merely for opinions of others and possibly examples of what others have done/their reasons why. I obviously wouldn’t act just based on what was posted here

OP posts:

brokenharbour · 01/10/2018 16:22

Surely joint tenants is better as if one of you dies the house just goes to the other? Otherwise you have to mess around with wills too and presumably if you went in as tenants in common you would want your 'half' of the house would go to the children you share anyway. Unless you would want to leave it to your parents or something like that.

brokenharbour · 01/10/2018 16:27

Just for context my partner and I own our house as joint tenants so if one of us dies it reverts to the other and our dc could stay in the house. My brother and his partner have no children (and aren't planning any) and they own as tenants in common so if my brother dies his half of the house would go to my dc as beneficiaries of his will. They have life insurance to repay their half of the mortgage. Of they were joint tenants all his share of the equity in the property would go to his partner on his death and he doesn't necessarily want her to be the beneficiary (and she has done the same with her family.)

scaryteacher · 01/10/2018 16:57

If you are not married then tenants in common and you can leave your half to your dc. If you died and your partner had another relationship and more kids, then the whole of the house could be left to his new partner and your kids might not get anything. Worth investigating very carefully.

brokenharbour · 01/10/2018 17:07

@scaryteacher surely that would be the case if you were joint tenants married or not? If you were married then your half of the house would revert to your partner and then if he later remarried the same could potentially happen - it would be theirs to do what they wanted with.

I must admit I've never though about my partner giving half the house to another woman and disinheriting our children. But then I suppose I could potentially do exactly the same. I'm quite happy for him to have the house to do as he sees fits with it to be honest (if he has more children, which is unlikely, there is no way he would see ours suffer.)

Minniemountain · 01/10/2018 17:20

I suppose it's a case of who would you want your share to go to if you died the day after buying.

DH have always owned as joint tenants. First house was pre-DS and pre-marriage but I didn't want anyone other than him to have my share.

Now was have DS and wills and are married, we still own as JTs.

brokenharbour · 01/10/2018 17:20

I'm banging on but to me tenants in common means more risk as either of you could leave half the house to someone else randomly and then have to leave if one of you dies. Unless either of you have children from a previous relationship and want to protect their inheritance in which case it makes sense.

Minniemountain · 01/10/2018 17:20

*DH and I have

scaryteacher · 01/10/2018 18:12

brokenharbour We own our house as joint tenants, so if I died tomorrow, dh would get all the house, could remarry and leave it all to his new missus, and our ds could get nothing. Exactly what happened when my Dad died - all has gone to his wife and her kids and grandchildren will benefit from my dad's contribution to their house.

If you are tenants in common then, as when fil died, you can will your half to your kids with a life interest in possession to the surviving spouse. Had they not split the tenancy, mil would have hung on to the house and ignored fils wishes about the disposal of his half. Thus, mil stays in the house, and on her death, dh and his brother get their half when it comes out of trust. We will have a battle on our hands as I expect she will have made it as difficult as possible post mortem for the two of them to realise their inheritance, but hey ho, there's no reasoning with a paranoid narcissist.

Original poster

saturdaynightgin · 01/10/2018 18:20

We have wills already that state DD is beneficiary. And from what I understand, if we were to be tenants in common, we can put something in place to state that the other could stay in the house as long as they need/want to if one of us was to die. It’s such a big decision and there’s lots of scenarios where one of the other would be the best option

OP posts:

Original poster

saturdaynightgin · 01/10/2018 18:24

One or the other*

OP posts:

SandAndSea · 01/10/2018 18:27

Not a lawyer but I think you're safer as joint tenants.

ThanksItHasPockets · 01/10/2018 18:39

I would personally marry sooner rather than later and then buy the house as joint tenants.

BlueBug45 · 01/10/2018 18:39

I think you are safer as tenants in common that way your children inherit regardless if one of you dies and remarries.

brokenharbour · 01/10/2018 20:19

Thanks. I think my point was what was the difference if you're married or not in respect of being joint tenants if you're concerned about property being passed to children so i didn't understand why advice was do it as tenants in common specifically mentioning if you're not married. So what you're saying is always be tenants in common if you have children and you want to protect their inheritance from any future spouse to your partner, whether you're married or not. Which makes sense but I think most couples would choose joint tenancy over that for the convenience. I was trying to pin down the difference marriage would make to the advice given but doesn't appear to be any difference.

There could be an inheritance tax aspect of tenants in common and not married though I suppose.

brokenharbour · 01/10/2018 20:21

It can be switched over quite easily apparently! But if tenants in common is to protect children's inheritance and it doesn't matter if you're married or not, probably no point.

Interesting.

brokenharbour · 01/10/2018 20:30

I think I would expect my partner to protect our children if he married again rather than pre-empting it at this stage by binding his hands with trusts etc if he wanted to sell after I'd passed away. I still think it should be his house to do as he sees fit with rather than my children owning half. But I do trust that he would put the children first. They will get inheritance from my parents so I suppose I'm thinking of that too. And if I come into that I will certainly not be using it to pay off the mortgage on a jointly owned property just in case of the scenario where I die first and dp marries again. I would be interested in the advice you get though OP, could you let us know?

Everincreasingfrequency · 01/10/2018 20:32

"I think you are safer as tenants in common that way your children inherit regardless if one of you dies and remarries."

Although in some ways less safe for the parent? Because your dp/dh could leave his share to whoever s/he feels like - dsiblings, parents, the cat home. And if s/he doesn't give you a lifetime right to live there you may have to leave the house. Sounds an unlikely, scenario (particularly the cat home) but you never know.

On the other hand mn has made me aware of how often it happens that the surviving spouse leaves all the assets elsewhere than to the dc - I've heard of this before but it really does seem not that unusual.

Someone mentioned inheritance tax as well - different depending on whether you leave property to spouse or to dc.

GU24Mum · 01/10/2018 20:48

I'd always have mine as TIC but that's a personal view.

If you start off as joint tenants, you can sever the joint tenancy (either person can, it doesn't have to be agreed).

If you own as joint tenants, a will is irrelevant for the share in the house as it passes to the survivor. If you own as TICs then the share goes according to the will or the intestacy rules.

There are various different factors and you have to weigh up where you sit .....
If you own as TIC and leave your share to someone other than your spouse then he/she may have to buy the other one out.
If you own as JTs and you both die at the same time, the family of the younger of the two of you will get it all (assuming that's what the will/intestacy rules say).
If you own as JTs and hope that the surviving spouse will leave the house to your children, you cannot control this - they could leave it to a second spouse or anyone else and effectively disinherit the children.

That's a few of the main ones. Hope that helps!

MakeAHouseAHome · 06/10/2018 20:49

Boyfriend and are are Tennants in Common. We out in unequal shares though so being Tennants in Common was the only way to reflect this and have legal recourse should we split. We need to get a will written though because currently if one of us died our share would go to family and not to each other. I believe if you are joint tennants you have equal claims to the house and it would go to the other automatically if you died.

HotChoc10 · 07/10/2018 11:02

My partner and I have gone for tenants in common, but that was because I put in about 3x as much deposit as him so if we did split I would want that protected. However, I am leaving my share to him in my will.

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