Question

How does the legal notion of tenancy in common function?

Answer 1

It means no one has survival rights for bank or brokerage accounts, so if a tenant (co-owner) dies their ownership passes to their heirs according to their designation of beneficiary or will. The other option is typically joint tenants with survival rights, commonly used for married couples-in this case the surviving co-owner becomes the sole owner..

The acronym TIC, which stands for common tenancy and common tenants, and sometimes also referred to as co-tenancy, refers to arrangements under which two or more people co-own a real estate parcel without a "right of survivorship." This form of co-ownership allows each co-owner to choose who will inherit interest in his / her ownership upon death. By comparison, the form of co-ownership called joint tenancy demands that, upon death, the property of each co-owner move on to the other co-owners. The broader terms fractional ownership, mutual ownership, and co-ownership encompass all agreements that include two or more owners, including common and joint tenancy tenancy.

The advantage of owning a property as Tenants in Common is that any owner of a property may leave their share of the property to another person of their choice under their own will. The owner has every right to handle his share as they see fit. Owning a property as Tenants in Common often requires documenting on the Title the exact financial contribution made by each party to the land. The benefit for this arrangement is that as mentioned above, as a property owner, you maintain the right to manage your share as you wish, as it is not automatically passed to the other surviving owners upon death.