CO – OWNERSHIP OF LAND FREEHOLD UNIT 1: JOINT TENANCY.
1.0 INTRODUCTION.
2.0 OBJECTIVE
3.0 DEFINITION OF JOINT TENANCY
4.0 ELEMENTS OF JOINT TENANCY
5.0 MODE OF SEVERANCE OF JOINT TENANCY
6.0 JOINT OWNERSHIP BETWEEN HUSBAND AND WIFE
7.0 CONCLUSION
8.0 SUMMARY
9.0 TUTOR MARKED ASSIGNMENT
10.0 SUGGESTED ANSWERS
11.0 SUGGESTED FURTHER READING / REFERENCES
CO- OWNERSHIP OF LAND RIGHTS JOINT TENANCY
INTRODUCTION.
Co- ownership of land refers to more than one person having an interest in a particular land. Joint ownership arises where property is transferred to more than one person to hold interest in and enjoy land concurrently. Joint tenancy may arise from a grant in a deed, devise in a will or by pooling resources together to acquire an interest in land.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this unit is to expose students to words of severance or words of limitation used in tenancy arrangements and their connotations and rights and obligations accruing to specific tenancy arrangements.
DEFINITION OF JOINT TENANCY
Joint tenancy refers to ownership of land by two or more people without words of severance e.g. “To Osahon and Osagie”
ELEMENTS OF JOINT TENANCY
A joint tenancy is characterized by four essential elements which are often referred to as the “four unities” They are:
- Unity of possession: all joint tenants possess one and the same piece of land. None of them can point to any part of the land as his own independently
- Unity of interest: each joint tenant has the same and identical interest in the land as a whole. No tenant has a separate and distinct interest in any part of the land
- Unity of title: all tenants dereive their title from one and the same source which is either a deed of conveyance or will.
- Unity of time: Ownership is concurrent joint tenants dereive their title from the same point in time
Joint tenancy is also subject to jus accrescendi i.e right of survivorship where one or more joint tenant-dies, the survivor or survivors are entitled to the whole interest to the exclusion of the family of the deceased joint owners.
MODE OF SEVERANCE OF JOINT TENANCY
A joint tenancy may be severed in any of the following ways:
- By partition: To ensure his heirs are not disadvantaged by the rule of jus accrescendi, a joint tenant may urge the other tenants to partition the land among them and execute a deed in evidence of it. Where there is disagreement as to partitioning, an application may be made to court for an order of
- By sale by one or more of the joint owners in his life time
In Re Mayo (1943) Ch. 302 Parliament empowered the court to make such order as it deemed fit where application was made to it by a joint owner desirous of selling his property.
Similarly, in Basina v Weeks, the court held that one of the joint tenants could validly sell his interest in the land.
- By one of the tenants alienating his interest to a stranger but not through a will.
In Ipaye v Aribisala (1930) 10 NLR 10 the Plaintiff and his brother were joint tenants under a deed of settlement. The deed was in his brother’s custody. On his death, Plaintiff’s action to recover the deed from the mortgagor from whom his brother borrowed money and used the deed as security failed.
- By one tenant acquiring a greater interest in the land than the other tenants
- By mutual agreement to sever the joint tenancy
JOINT OWNERSHIP BETWEEN HUSBAND AND WIFE
Due to the law’s desire to encourage matrimony, spousal arrangement which involves contributing to the ownership of property is deemed to be joint ownership. The law is protective of right of a husband and wife to jointly live together and obtain a matrimonial home. The husband and wife must however contribute substantially an directly towards the acquisition of the property. This must be established with direct and credible evidence.
As long there is a valid and subsisting marriage, a husband is obligated to provide shelter for his wife.
In Old Gates Estate Ltd v Alexander (1949) 2 ALLER 822, Due to a quarrel between husband wife, the husband left the matrimonial home to a rented apartment and gave notice to the landlord that he was surrendering the apartment. The court held that so long as the marriage was still valid and subsisting, his wife could not be rendered homeless.
In Ogedegbe v Ogedegbe where a husband demolished the house he was inhabiting with his wife for the purpose of rebuilding it, failed to give his wife an apartment after the reconstruction, the court ordered him to provide for his wife the four room he had deprive her of.
CONCLUSION.
The concept of joint tenancy envisage ownership where the interest of the tenants are uniform in all ramifications. Any alteration in the relationship converts the relationship to a tenancy in common.
SUMMARY
- Joint ownership refers to ownership of property by two or more tenants where there is unity of interest, unity of title, unity of possession and unity of time
- Joint tenancy can be severed by partition, sale alienation or one of the owners acquiring a larger interest than the others in the property or by mutual agreement to sever
- Where one of the tenants in a joint tenancy dies, his interest in the property passes to the surviving joint tenants and not his heirs
- The relationship between a husband and wife to purchase a property is regarded in law as analogous to joint tenancy arrangement. Consequently a spouses are estopped from depriving each other of he shelter their matrimonial home
- Where there is dispute as to a tenant’s right or desire to end a joint tenancy, the aggrieved tenant may apply to court for an order to extinguish the joint tenancy
TUTOR MARKED ASSIGNMENT
- Distinguish the estate created by the devise “To Osahon and Obehi” and state its
- What are the method of severing the identified relationship
SUGGESTED ANSWERS
- Where there exists no words of severance, the relationship created is a joint ownership
- The characteristics are unity of title, unity of time, unity of possession and unity of interest
- Joint tenancy can be terminated by sale, partition, alienation and acquisition of a larger share in the property by any of the joint owners.
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING /REFERENCES
Emeka Chianu, Law of Landlord and Tenant cases and comments 2nd Edn (Benin City: Nigeria Printer Publication, 2006)
Elias T.O. Nigerian Land Law (London: Sweet & Maxwell, 1971)
Burns E. H. Modern Law of Real Property (London: Butterworths 1982)