When you own a property with someone, you can own it as joint tenants or tenants in common.

If you own your property as joint tenants, you both have equal rights to the whole property and the other owner will automatically inherit the property regardless of whether you have made a Will or not.

If you are going through a divorce or dissolution of a civil partnership, you understandably may not want your former spouse or civil partner to inherit the property you own together. In this instance, you can sever the joint tenancy so you instead own the property as tenants in common. This will mean you each own an equal or different share of the property. The other owner will no longer automatically inherit the property and you can leave your share of the property to someone else in your Will or it will pass under the intestacy rules if you do not have a Will.

To sever a joint tenancy, you will need to sign and date a Notice of Severance (“Notice”) which is served on the other owner for them to sign and date and return. This is then sent to the Land Registry so that a restriction is entered against the title of your property to show that it is now owned as tenants in common. If the other owner does not return the Notice, the Land Registry will still register the restriction as long as the other owner has been served with the Notice.

If you would like any further information or advice in relation to the division of assets on divorce or when dissolving a civil partnership, our specialist family lawyers are happy to help. Our lawyers have offices based in Wolverhampton and Cradley Heath and provide assistance to clients across the West Midlands including: Stourbridge, Kidderminster, Birmingham, Dudley and Walsall. 

For all new enquiries, please call 01902 328 355 or complete our online enquiry form and a member of our team will respond.