It’s one of the key decisions you have to make when you buy property with another person (e.g. your spouse) – to hold as joint tenants versus tenants in common – but many people don’t really know the difference! The decision to hold a property as joint tenants versus tenants in common can have a huge impact on your estate planning strategy and is not to be taken lightly.
Watch to find out the difference between the two ownership structures and please feel free to get in touch if you want to know which ownership structure is best for you. To find out how best to structure the transfer of your family home under your will, check out my post https://www.taralucke.com.au/home-is-where-the-heart-is-dealing-with-the-family-home-in-the-will/
Hi. Tara Lucke here. Do you own real property like your family home or an investment property with somebody else? Do you know if it is held as joint tenants or tenants in common? Now, this comes up all the time and most people don’t actually know the difference. So, I thought it might be useful for me to give you a quick crash course on the difference. It’s really common for spouses to own property, particularly their family home, as joint tenants. The joint tenants ownership structure means that if one of the owners dies, it automatically goes to the surviving owner.
So even if the will says I leave my share of the property to the dog and cats home, the will is disregarded if it is joint tenants and it goes straight to the surviving owner. So really, each owner owns a hundred percent or zero percent of the property and it’s up to the person who survives the longest as to who will own the property at the end.
Hi. Tara here. I’m following on from the joint tenancy and tenants in common video. So where we were up to is the tenants in common structure.
So, tenants in common means that each owner has a distinct share in the property and they can each leave their share in the property to whomever they like and their will is going to determine where that asset goes if they pass away. So, if I own a property jointly as tenants in common with another person and I say in my will that I leave the property to the dogs and cats home, it will go to the dog and cat’s home.
So, when you’re doing your estate plan, it’s really important to know is it joint tenants or tenants in common because the will may or may not matter and the ownership structure will really determine where it goes. So, a lot of people don’t know how it’s held. You can look back at you purchase contract or the title search which will show you if it’s joint tenants or tenants in common.