CG70500 | Land: tenants in common and joint tenants: introduction

Where two or more persons jointly own an interest in a piece of land in the UK, they will hold that land either as ‘joint tenants’ or as ‘tenants in common’. In Scotland the equivalent terms are ‘joint owners’ and ‘owners in common’.

In Northern Ireland, ‘tenants in common’ are also known as ‘coparceners’.

The differences between these two situations, and the importance of those differences, are described at CG70502 onwards and CG70520 onwards.

The terms ‘joint tenancy’ and ‘tenancy in common’ describe the relationship between the joint owners of the land. In this context a ‘tenant’ is not necessarily a person occupying the land under a lease. The terms ‘joint tenancy’ and ‘tenancy in common’ can apply equally to the joint ownership of freehold and leasehold interests.