Below is a guest blog post regarding joint land ownership under US law.
Joint land ownership or joint ownership has a legal term and that is “concurrent ownership”. So, if the law is considered, in general there are three types of “concurrent ownership” situations and these are, joint tenancy, tenants in common, and the two people in a relation like that of marriage, can own a home on joint basis. Now, if the tenants tend to fall off on good terms, if a couple contemplates divorce, problems are supposed to arise with regards to the ownership of the home. The situation can get even more complex, if the homeowners had been facing problem in making the mortgage payments, thereby requiring them to plan a mortgage loan modification.
Joint land ownership in case of relationship breakdowns
In case of relationship breakdowns and joint ownership of properties, it is important to first find out if the joint tenancy commitment has been severed. If a joint tenancy has been cut off, it changes to tenancy in common. So, if this happens, taking out the share of a spouse or partner in particular, becomes easier. Now, can be the joint tenancy cut off? This can easily be achieved through:
1.The bankruptcy filing by any one amongst the joint tenants
2.May be, a written agreement in between the tenants or parties stating, that they from now on will hold the rental property as tenants in common
3.Some of the conducts which is going to render it clearly, that the tenants have severed the ties with regards to joint tenancy
4.A court order in relation to the property, which is going to declare that the property is in no way compatible for joint ownership
However, on the other hand, situations which definitely are not going to result in cut off of joint tenancy are as following:
1.A declaration by a single tenant or party, declaring that the ownership has been severed
2.Simply applying for ending the joint tenancy, like that of making an application to the Victorian Civil and the Administrative Tribunal, so as to get an order on the same
3.Any form of conduct by the parties concerned, which shows that the joint tenancy has been severed, even if it is in the process of getting cut off, and the severance is yet to happen in actuality
4.If one of the owners obtains a home loan or mortgage
5.If one of the owners leases out the property
6.Ejection of only one owner
However, if any cut off on the joint tenancy is not possible, then a situation will have to be considered, under which one party or spouse is said to hold his/her joint land ownership in trust for and also, on behalf of the other partner or spouse. There are mainly two types of trust with regards to such a situation, and these are the constructive trust, and the resulting trust.
The constructive trust is when the judgement court imposes trust so as to do justice to both of the partners in question, or the spouses as well. This judgement is taken free of any particular intention. On the other hand, the entitlement of the resulting trust is the process that involves the transfer of the legal title to a person, who isn’t the beneficial owner with regards to the property. This is more of an “intention enforcing” trust.