Type of ownership

What kind of ownership do you have in mind? 

Ownership is more important when the solicitor is drafting the transfer documents. If you purchase in one name you may change it on the transfer documents to include another person. You will have to instruct your solicitor in advance to draft in both names.

Sole owner

This is the simplest form of ownership. When one person has total control of the property it is subject only to the usual environmental and local body legislation.

Co-owner

You have two possibilities here:

Tenants in common - Any two people can be tenants in common. The shares can be equal or unequal. For example, one owner can have a 50% share, one party a 30% share one a 10% share and two can have a 5% share in the same property. Each owner can bequeath his or her interest to separate heirs. It is like having ownership of an orange and every owner has a number of segments (a slice of ownership) and they can pass that ownership to whomever they please.

Joint tenants - It can be husband and wife, two friends or two business partners who decide on joint tenancy. Each has an equal, undivided share. The rule of survivorship applies. This means that one party will own the property when the other one is deceased. It will not form part of the deceased estate. This is the only way for trustees to have ownership of a trust. The best way to illustrate it is to think about a large ball bearing. Usually it cannot be divided (not without very precision tools so let’s just pretend it can’t be divided). So if one owner dies the other one is the sole owner.