Q Three years ago, my daughter and her partner bought a house together. The solicitor acting for them sent a letter to each of them explaining the difference between owning the house as joint tenants and tenants in common, and said they should discuss which type of ownership they wanted. They decided on joint tenancy. They also decided they would have wills drawn up so that my daughter would leave her share of the house to her nephew, and that her partner would leave her share to her nephews.
Three years on, her partner went away for a few days on a course and while away she filed with the Land Registry that she wanted it changed from joint tenancy to tenants in common. The first my daughter heard about this was when she received a registered letter from her partner with the documents in duplicate to say the tenancy was changed.
My daughter is upset and it has soured their relationship as she feels this should have been discussed. There was no indication that either of them were unhappy, and when her partner returned she cheerfully said, “You had my letter then”, and could not understand why my daughter was unhappy about this. They share everything equally, and my daughter thought they should have talked about this before any action was taken.
Can her partner do this? And what recourse can my daughter take regarding this? JA
A Yes, your daughter’s partner can do what’s called “severing” a joint tenancy without your daughter’s agreement as long as she has followed the procedure outlined on the government’s website. And there’s nothing your daughter can do about it as she would need her partner’s agreement to revert to joint tenancy.
I agree it was a bit odd of your daughter’s partner not to discuss what she was doing, but it may cheer your daughter up to know that it was all for the best. As joint tenants, they didn’t own distinct shares in the property and on the death of either of them, the whole property would automatically be owned by the other irrespective of what it said in a will.
For each of them to be able to leave their share of the property to their respective nephews, they need to be tenants in common, where they each own a distinct share in the property that can be left to anyone they choose. So what they originally wanted to happen can now occur; this wouldn’t have been the case if they had remained joint tenants.
