Tenancy in common

What it means

Each tenant in common owns a distinct fractional interest. The shares need not be equal, and each owner can sell or leave their share independently.

There is no right of survivorship. When one owner dies, their share goes into their estate.

It is the default form of co-ownership in many states where survivorship is not stated explicitly.

Why it matters

It decides whether a co-owned house goes through probate — and with tenancy in common it does, for the deceased owner's share.

It is also how a family home ends up owned by six cousins over two generations, each with a share and none with control.

When you are likely to meet it

• When reading a deed for co-owned property.
• When one of several co-owners dies.
• When co-owners disagree about selling.

How this varies by state

Which form of co-ownership a state presumes when the deed is silent is set by state law.

Related terms

• Community propertyIn some states, most of what a married couple acquires during the marriage belongs to both of them equally, whatever the paperwork says.
• DeedThe recorded document that says who owns a piece of real property, and how they hold it.
• EstateEverything the person owned at the moment they died, treated as one thing that has to be settled.
• Heirs' propertyLand or a home that passed informally to several generations of heirs, so that many people own undivided shares and nobody has clear title.
• Joint tenancy with right of survivorshipA way two or more people own something together where, when one dies, the others simply own it — with no probate.
• Life estateAn arrangement where one person has the right to use property for their lifetime, and somebody else automatically owns it afterwards.
• Partition actionA court case brought by one co-owner to divide property, or force its sale, when the owners cannot agree.
• Partition in kindPhysically dividing co-owned land between the owners, rather than selling it and dividing the money.
• Probate assetSomething owned in the deceased person's name alone, with nobody named to receive it.
• Property tax saleThe process by which a county sells a property, or a lien on it, because the property taxes went unpaid.
• Quitclaim deedA deed transferring whatever interest the signer has, with no promise that they have any.
• Separate propertyIn a community property state, what belongs to one spouse alone — usually what they brought into the marriage, and what they inherited or were given.
• Right of survivorshipA form of shared ownership where the survivor automatically takes the whole thing.
• Tenancy by the entiretyA form of joint ownership available only to married couples in some states, with survivorship and unusually strong protection from one spouse's creditors.
• Undivided interestA share of the whole of a property, rather than a piece of it. A one-third interest is not one third of the land.

Sahvelo guidance that uses this

• Do I need probate?