Buying with someone else

Legal ownership

If two or more people are buying the property jointly they will be joint legal owners. The agreement of all legal owners is needed if the property is to be sold, although if there is a dispute an owner can apply for a court order.

Beneficial ownership

As well as the legal ownership of property, there is the beneficial ownership to be considered. This means the shares in the property to which the owners are entitled.
There are two types of beneficial ownership - joint tenants and tenants in common. If you are joint tenants, your property cannot be sold without the agreement of both of you. If one of you dies, their share of the property passes automatically to the other. If you own your property as tenants in common, each of you will have a share in the property that you can dispose of as you like. It is up to you to decide how much each share will be. If one of you dies, you can leave your share to whoever you like.