Joint tenants or tenants in common: which should we choose?
As joint tenants you own the whole property together with no defined shares, and on death the survivor takes everything automatically. A will cannot override it. As tenants in common each of you owns a defined share that passes under your will. The full comparison is in our guide, joint tenants or tenants in common: the choice that outlives you.
If you are contributing unequal amounts, tenants in common with a deed of trust recording your shares is worth considering, and we explain both options. You choose, and we record it on the transfer.
| Joint tenants | Tenants in common | |
|---|---|---|
| Shares | None, you own the whole together | Defined, 50/50, 70/30, whatever you agree |
| On death | Survivor takes everything automatically | Your share passes under your will |
| Usual for | Married couples with shared finances | Unequal deposits, second families, friends buying together |
| On the register | Nothing added | A restriction protects each share |
| Change later | Can be severed to tenants in common | Can become joint tenants by agreement |
Is Stamp Duty or Land Transaction Tax payable on a transfer of equity?
Sometimes. In England, Stamp Duty Land Tax is charged on the consideration given, not on the property's value; in Wales the equivalent is Land Transaction Tax, collected by the Welsh Revenue Authority with its own bands. A pure gift with no mortgage usually gives rise to no tax. Where the incoming owner takes on a share of an existing mortgage, that share counts as consideration: a return is required once the consideration reaches 40,000 pounds even if no tax is due, and tax is due above the nil band. The 40,000 pound figure is the same in both countries; the filing deadline is not, at fourteen days in England and thirty in Wales (section 77A and section 76 of the Finance Act 2003, sections 44 and 46 of the Welsh Act of 2017, checked 20 September 2026).
If the incoming owner already owns another property, the higher rates for additional dwellings can apply unless an exception does. The spouse and civil partner rule is the common one, and it is an England only rule: a transfer between spouses or civil partners who are living together is taken out of the higher rates altogether whatever else the incoming spouse owns, provided nobody else has an interest in the property before or after (paragraph 9A of Schedule 4ZA to the Finance Act 2003, checked 20 September 2026). Wales has nothing of the kind, so a Welsh transfer escapes the higher rates only if the home is the incoming owner's own only or main residence immediately before and immediately after. Transfers made under a court order, or an agreement made in contemplation of or otherwise in connection with divorce or dissolution, are exempt in both countries, and an exempt transaction is not notifiable at all (paragraph 3 of Schedule 3 to the Finance Act 2003 for spouses and, for civil partners, the paragraph 3A of that Schedule inserted by the Tax and Civil Partnership Regulations 2005, checked 26 September 2026; paragraph 3 of Schedule 3 to the Welsh Act of 2017). Transfers between unmarried partners are not. Our Stamp Duty calculator covers the bands.
When is a transfer of equity not enough?
A transfer changes the legal owners. It does not, on its own, release anyone from the mortgage, change who is liable to the lender, or protect an unequal contribution. Where those matter, the transfer runs alongside a remortgage, a formal release from the lender, or a deed of trust. And we tell you which at the outset. If you are separating, removing a name after divorce explains how the transfer fits with the financial settlement.