Often in life we enter into circumstances with the best of intentions, such as buying a house with a partner or friend. But there may come a time when this arrangement no longer suits one or both of you, and you need to move on and legally end the tenancy. Let’s look at the options on how to go about this.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!What is a joint tenancy?
A joint tenancy is the most common way for a couple to jointly own a property. It means that both people own the whole of the property, and if one person were to pass away, ownership would pass in full to the other, according to Gov.uk
Why would you need to end the joint tenancy?
You may need to end the joint tenancy in cases of divorce or separation. Severing a joint tenancy may also be a good decision if one of you wishes to own more of the property than the other – this is sometimes the case if you jointly own a rental property, and wish to receive unequal amounts of rental income.
It can also be useful if you wish to end the automatic transfer of equity to the surviving spouse in the event of one partner passing away – for example, if you wish to have the flexibility to include children in the estate.
How can it be severed?
Before making any decisions, you should consider obtaining specialist legal advice from specialists such as https://www.parachutelaw.co.uk/severance-of-joint-tenancy. You should be clear on the facts, before proceeding with a severance of joint tenancy.
The first step, in conjunction with your solicitor, will be deciding what arrangement you’ll be moving to. All parties must sign to agree with the severance of the joint tenancy. If they cannot or won’t sign, notice must be served to the other party. At this point, a Form SEV (severance of joint tenancy form), must be completed by both parties. Once the form is completed, it should then be sent to the Land Registry who will update records detailing who is the legal owner of the property.