Whenever two or more people own land together, the law has to answer a deceptively simple question: how do they hold it? The answer shapes who inherits a deceased owner's share, who can force a sale, and whether a buyer takes the land free of everyone else's interests. As a solicitor advising home-buyers, separating couples, business partners or executors, this is one of the most practical pieces of land law you will use — and getting it right protects your client's money and their home.
This lesson builds your understanding step by step:
- Co-ownership and the Trust of Land — the two forms of co-ownership and the trust structure imposed on every co-owned property.
- The Four Unities — the conditions that make a joint tenancy possible and what their absence means.
- Determining the Beneficial Interest — the ordered method for deciding which form of co-ownership applies.
- Severance — how a joint tenancy is converted into a tenancy in common, and the five recognised methods.
- Death and Survivorship — what happens to a share when a co-owner dies.
- Overreaching and the Form A Restriction — how a buyer takes free of beneficial interests, and the safeguard that ensures it.
- Disputes and Occupation Under TOLATA 1996 — resolving deadlock and occupation rights through the court.
- Bankruptcy and Sale — how a trustee in bankruptcy forces a sale and why "exceptional" is read so narrowly.