Also known as: ownership-in-common · tenancy in common
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A form of concurrent ownership in which two or more persons hold undivided interests in property. Each interest is freely alienable and passes to the holder's heirs or successors upon death rather than by survivorship.
Oskar Ocampo and Oakley Osei each contributed half the purchase price for an abandoned warehouse and took title as tenants in common. They rented bays to independent mechanics and split the net rental income each month while operating separate repair shops elsewhere. When a dispute arose over expansion plans, a court held that their arrangement remained mere co-ownership and did not create a partnership.
Orson Ochoa and his wife held a commercial building as joint tenants. After the wife unilaterally executed a five-year lease of her interest to a startup, she died before the term ended. Orson then sued the tenant to quiet title, asserting that the lease terminated with the joint tenancy upon her death, but the court noted the lease would have survived under ownership in common after severance.
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Orion Orlov and his spouse held land as joint tenants. Months before death, Orion executed a grant deed conveying an undivided one-half interest to himself and recorded a will disposing of that share. The surviving spouse claimed the entire property by survivorship, but the court recognized that the deed had severed the joint tenancy and created ownership in common.
Orlando Okafor and his sibling inherited farmland as tenants in common. When Orlando died intestate, his heirs claimed his undivided interest passed through his estate rather than to the surviving co-owner. The probate court confirmed that each tenant's share descended to heirs under ownership in common.
Otto Osman and his wife held their home as tenants by the entirety. After a judgment creditor obtained a lien against the husband alone, the court permitted execution on his undivided interest because the state treated the interest as reachable under ownership in common principles once the marital unity was considered.
Optima Health obtained a tax lien against one spouse who held real property with the other as tenants by the entirety. The United States Supreme Court held that the lien attached to the debtor spouse's interest because federal tax law looks to the substantive rights created by state ownership in common rules rather than formal labels.
No. Joint tenancy, tenancy in common, or part ownership does not by itself establish a partnership even when the co-owners share profits made by the use of the property.
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In ownership in common each tenant's interest passes to that tenant's heirs or successors. In joint tenancy the interest passes to the surviving joint tenant by right of survivorship.
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Yes. A tenant in common may convey or encumber an undivided interest without the consent of the other co-owners, and such a conveyance converts the interest into a separate share held in ownership in common.
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Yes. Because each tenant's interest passes to heirs or successors rather than by survivorship, a lease executed by one tenant in common generally binds the successor in interest.
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…the prevailing view of the lower courts of this jurisdiction. Hawaii has long recognized and continues to recognize the tenancy in common, the joint tenancy, and the tenancy by the entirety, as separate and distinct estates. See Paahana v. Bila , 3 Haw. 725 (1876). That the Married Women’s Property Act of 1888 was not…