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Exam vocabulary · form of co-ownership

What Is Tenancy in Common in Real Estate?

Definition

Tenancy in common is co-ownership in which each owner holds a separate, freely transferable share that passes to their own heirs at death. Shares may be unequal and there is no right of survivorship, yet every co-tenant has the right to possess the entire property.

How the exam tests tenancy in common

These mirror the phrasing you will see on test day. Answer them, then read the explanation whether or not you got it right.

Tenancy in common: exam questions1/8
Property ownership

A Wisconsin conveyance clearly creates a tenancy in common but states no ownership fractions. What presumption applies to the size of the undivided interests?

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Every tenancy in common question, answered

Every question above with its correct answer and the reasoning behind it. Read the explanations for the ones you answered correctly too. A lucky guess and knowing the rule look identical on a score report. These are sample questions from our larger bank.

  1. 1. A Wisconsin conveyance clearly creates a tenancy in common but states no ownership fractions. What presumption applies to the size of the undivided interests?

    • AEqual undivided interests, absent a different intent expressed in the instrument.correct
    • BThe interests cannot exist unless the deed recites percentages.
    • CTheir shares automatically equal their initial purchase-money contributions.
    • DEach receives an automatic survivorship right that eliminates any tenancy-in-common share.

    Why: Section 700.20 looks first to the instrument's expressed intent and otherwise presumes equal undivided interests. Purchase-money contributions do not automatically replace that presumption, and a tenancy in common does not acquire joint-tenancy survivorship merely because fractions were omitted.

    Property ownership

  2. 2. The four unities required to create a joint tenancy are:

    • APossession, profit, purpose, and title
    • BInterest, income, inheritance, and title
    • CPossession, interest, time, and titlecorrect
    • DTitle, tenancy, transfer, and term

    Why: Joint tenancy requires unity of possession, interest, time, and title. Tenancy in common needs only unity of possession, which is why unequal shares are permitted there.

    Property ownership

  3. 3. Which form of co-ownership allows unequal fractional shares that pass to each owner's heirs?

    • ACommunity property with right of survivorship
    • BJoint tenancy
    • CTenancy in commoncorrect
    • DTenancy by the entirety

    Why: Tenancy in common permits unequal undivided shares, and each share is inheritable because there is no survivorship. Joint tenancy requires equal interests and defeats inheritance through survivorship.

    Property ownership

  4. 4. Which act by a joint tenant severs the joint tenancy as to that tenant's share?

    • AConveying the interest by deed to another personcorrect
    • BRenting out the property to a tenant
    • CPaying more than a proportionate share of the property taxes
    • DRecording a homeowner insurance policy

    Why: Transferring a joint tenant's interest by deed destroys unity of time and title for that share, turning it into a tenancy in common. Leasing the property or paying extra expenses leaves the unities intact.

    Property ownership

  5. 5. Under California Civil Code 683, a joint tenancy is created only when:

    • Athe instrument expressly declares a joint tenancycorrect
    • Bthe co-owners all live on the property
    • Cthe deed is recorded within 30 days of its delivery
    • Dthe co-owners are married to each other

    Why: Civil Code 683(a) defines a joint interest as one owned in equal shares by a title created by a single will or transfer, when expressly declared in the will or transfer to be a joint tenancy. Without that declaration the default is a tenancy in common.

    Property ownership

  6. 6. A Delaware owner wants an otherwise valid deed conveying property directly to that owner and another person as joint tenants with right of survivorship. Must a third-party intermediary first take and reconvey title solely because the owner is also a grantee?

    • AYes; the direct method is effective after the third party later ratifies it
    • BNo; Section 311 makes the otherwise valid direct conveyance effective without that intermediary stepcorrect
    • CYes; an owner cannot be a grantee in the same conveyance
    • DYes; direct self-and-other conveyances are permitted for tenancy in common but not for survivorship

    Why: Section 311 gives the otherwise valid grantor-to-self-and-other conveyance the same effectiveness as an intermediary conveyance. It permits either the stated survivorship ownership or tenancy in common; grantor participation alone does not require a straw conveyance.

    Transfer of title

  7. 7. A North Carolina deed conveys to 2 unrelated people without survivorship language or another statutory ownership form. What co-ownership does North Carolina law ordinarily create?

    • ATenancy by the entirety.
    • BJoint tenancy with right of survivorship.
    • CJoint tenancy that gives survivorship when the shares are equal.
    • DTenancy in common.correct

    Why: G.S. 41-71(a) makes tenancy in common the default unless the instrument creates a joint tenancy with right of survivorship or the law creates a tenancy by the entirety. Unrelated grantees do not hold by the entirety merely by sharing a deed.

    Property ownership

  8. 8. A Utah deed names 2 individuals with only the ownership connector and/or and no joint-tenancy language. How does the statute treat that language?

    • AIt creates a joint tenancy with right of survivorship
    • BIt creates a tenancy by the entirety
    • CIt gives the first named grantee a life estate and the second the remainder
    • DIt declares a tenancy in commoncorrect

    Why: The statute treats the words and/or as declaring a tenancy in common unless accompanied by the specified joint-tenancy language. That express drafting rule differs from the general presumption for an otherwise silent grant.

    Property ownership

Where tenancy in common sits in the exam vocabulary

Tenancy in common is a form of co-ownership, and so are joint tenancy, tenancy by the entirety and community property. That matters more than it sounds: a multiple-choice item builds its wrong answers out of siblings like these, because they are the options that look plausible to someone who has learned the category but not the distinction. If tenancy in common appears as the correct answer, expect to see joint tenancy and tenancy by the entirety on the same screen.

Tenancy in common does not stand on its own: it assumes you already know partition. Questions that look like they are testing tenancy in common are often really testing whether that idea is solid underneath it.

The exam most often tries to catch you by putting tenancy in common next to joint tenancy and tenancy by the entirety. Each of those is a real concept sitting close enough to be tempting, and the question usually turns on the single feature that separates them rather than on the definition of either one. Read the contrast, not the term.

Words that mean tenancy in common, but only sometimes

These are conditional synonyms. Each one is interchangeable with tenancy in common in the context stated beside it and misleading everywhere else, which is precisely the kind of distinction an exam item is built on.

  • TIC: equivalent to tenancy in common in title vesting abbreviation and fractional-investment usage.

Related exam terms

Tested alongside

Often confused with

Know this first

Tenancy in common belongs to the form of co-ownership family of exam concepts. When it is solid, take the free real estate exam prep or browse the full real estate vocabulary.