It is important, for obvious reasons, to have clearly established rules and laws when it comes to defining ownership. Different rules apply for property that has one owner than property that has two owners. What if the owner of a specific property allows someone else to use the land? What if the owner of a parcel of land is a company? Lets have a little discussion on the different types of ownership and some of rules that govern them.
The first type of ownership is called Severalty. While this seems to look like it has the word “several” meaning more than one, it actually has the word sever, meaning severing rights from everyone else but the owner. Being the most simple forms of ownership it should go without saying, but the single owner has all of the rights of possession that we talked about earlier. So Severalty means ONE owner. (That one owner can be a company too)
There are a couple different types of Co-Ownership, meaning more than one owner. A Tenancy in Common means there are two or more owners who each own an undivided amount of the property. If one of the owners were to die the ownership rights would pass on as directed by the will of that owner.
Joint Tenancy is a bit more complicated. Again it requires two or more owners but includes what is called the “Right of Survivorship” meaning that when one owner dies, the other owners have a claim to that owners interest instead of it going to the owners heir. To create a joint tenancy requires something called the four unities. They are:
Unity of Possession-all joint tenants hold an undivided interest
Unity of Interest – all joint tenants hold equal ownership
Unity of Time – all joint tenants acquire their interest at the same time
Unity of Title – all joint tenants acquire their interest by the same document
Joint tenancy is terminated if any one of these unities is terminated, or may be terminated by court order.
A Tenancy by the Entirety is a special form of ownership for married couples. Each person has an undivided interest with the right of survivorship (the other spouse gets the entire interest if one dies). Tenancy by the entirety can be terminated by death of either spouse, agreement of both parties, divorce, or court ordered sale.
There is a bit more to ownership getting into trusts, but we will save that for next time!
