Joint tenants or tenants in common

Comyface

Hi all

A friend of my husband’s has asked me for some info about the above on his house but I’m stumped so hoping someone here may be able to help. 

He bought his house jointly with his dad in 2004 and he, his mum and his dad have all lived together since. His dad recently died and his mum was sorting out her will so needed to know if she should include ‘her’ part of the house from his dad in the will. Hence the ‘joint tenants’ or ‘tenants in common’ query. 

She is doing the will with Co-op (I think he said) and they said they’d be able to tell but then they said they couldn’t. So he’s been to the Land Registry and downloaded the Title Register which he sent to me but I can’t see it on there. 

How else could he find out? 

Cheers. 

pumas

If you see the following - ...No disposition by a sole proprietor....
Tenants in common 
How can whoever write a will without knowing?

Keep_pedalling

If the property was owned as tenants in common then there should be a a restriction on the title deeds worded as follows.

No disposition by a sole proprietor of the registered estate (except a trust corporation) under which capital money arises is to be registered unless authorised by an order of the court.

If that is not there then your home will have been owned as  joint tenants. If you and your father owned the property as joint tenants then you are now the sole owner by survivorship so it will not form part of your mother’s estate. 

p00hsticks

Comyface said:

his mum was sorting out her will so needed to know if she should include ‘her’ part of the house from his dad in the will. Hence the ‘joint tenants’ or ‘tenants in common’ query. 

Not answering your question but things to think about 

If the property was owned by the son and the father as joint tenants then there is no 'her' part of the house - ownership t automatically passed to the son on the fathers death, regardless of any will. Hopefully she i already aware of this. 
 
If ownership was as tenants in common and the fathers will left his share to her, then it's not generally a good idea to mention specific properties (or shares of properties) in wills in case the property is sold before the death, with the result that the bequest fails (the intended recipient wouldn't automatically get am alternative property or the cash from the sale) 

Alderbank

pumas said:

If you see the following - ...No disposition by a sole proprietor....
Tenants in common 
How can whoever write a will without knowing?

Not that simple.

The Land Registry entry is a snapshot in time. I agree that '...No disposition by a sole...' meant TIC at that time but that time could have been 30 years ago.

That is the reason why the LR themselves say they don't record the form of tenancy - they simply don't know. The proprietors can agree between themselves to change the tenancy whenever they wish and there is no requirement to inform LR.

The wills are indeed important - if the solicitor did his job competently then including the house tells you it was held TIC at the time when the will was drawn up.