What Is A Joint Ownership Agreement?

Since the second half of the 1990s, booms spread like wildfire through housing, land, and commercial property markets in many countries. The reasons for this boom are liberalization of the financial system, substantial growth in the service sector and increasing spending capacity of the individuals. This economic growth resulted in rapid development in real estate sector within a short span of time. Also, changes in society like migration to the nuclear family from the joint family have created the need for more houses and commercial spaces.

Demand for property has resulted in increasing the value of the property. Nowadays youngsters do not prefer to invest their hard earned money into one specific investment. They prefer to invest in multiple baskets so that overall gain can be obtained. Also, the ever-rising property value has made it impossible for individuals to buy property in a prime location. This has led to the concept of joint ownership.

Joint Ownership refers to two or more people jointly owning a property. It includes tenants in common, joint tenants with right of survivorship and community property interests.

Joint Ownership is of three forms

   Joint Tenants with right of survivorship

If there are two or more owners on the asset and one owner dies, then the surviving owner or owners will continue to own the asset and the estate and heirs at law of the deceased owner will receive absolutely nothing. A joint property interest cannot be passed through traditional documents, such as a trust or a will.

   Joint Tenancy

Joint tenancy is when two or more persons share equal, undivided interests in property. Joint tenancy is not limited to spouses – anyone can share joint interests, but there is a tax benefit when this arrangement is shared only between husband and wife because the property of the deceased will pass on to his spouse and not to the third party.

   Tenancy in Common

Tenants in common own an undivided interest in property between two or more people. If more than 2 tenants co-own the property and if one of the owners dies the property does not pass on to the survivors, but they have to take the assistance of law to get it transferred to the other owners. This may delay the process of selling the property if the survivors want to do the same.

So before investing in any property look at the various options available and then select the best fit