A significant 34% of adults in the UK own a home with another person, however one in four of those are not aware whether they are joint tenants or tenants in common, according to Ocean Finance.

When a property is purchased jointly, the owners can chose to either be “joint tenants” or “tenants in common”. This confirms the type of legal ownership each person has over the property, which in turn can affect what happens to the property if the relationship breaks down, or if one owner dies.

Joint tenants

The most common type of joint home ownership in the UK is joint tenants, with 63% of homeowners believing they hold their property as joint tenants. This gives equal rights over the property for each partner and equal ownership with each owning 100% of the property. As a result, for joint tenants the ownership of property passes automatically to the other owner when one dies. The share of the property can’t be passed onto a third party in a will whilst the other owner is alive.

Tenants in common

Just 12% of UK homeowners say that they own their home as tenants in common. Each owns a fixed stake in the property – which could be 50/50, but doesn’t need to be. This is often seen in cases where one partner puts down a larger deposit when purchasing a home, making it possible for two people to jointly own a home together, with one person owning say 70% and the other owning 30% of the property, for example.

Being tenants in common can be useful if the relationship breaks down between the two homeowners. The financial split may be easier to resolve because the share of property ownership has already been agreed upon, even if the property has increased in value.

Ian Williams, spokesperson for Ocean Finance, said: “The benefits of buying a house together as tenants in common are becoming better understood by homebuyers.

With more couples getting financial support from families with their deposit, or putting in their own savings, splitting the ownership allows them to preserve their share. The good news is that it isn’t too hard for joint tenants to split their tenancy if they need to – you can either download the forms from the Land Registry and do it yourself, or get help from a solicitor or conveyancer.”