Somewhere in the paperwork when you bought with someone else, a solicitor asked how you wanted to hold the property. Most people answer in under a minute and never think about it again.
It matters more than that minute suggests. The answer governs who gets your share when you die, who pays the tax on the rent if you let the place out and how much of the gain each of you is taxed on when you sell.
A married couple splitting £12,000 of rental profit 90/10 instead of 50/50 pays £960 a year less, but only if one of them really owns 90%.
A married couple with a let property producing £12,000 of taxable rental profit
| 50/50, the default | |
|---|---|
| Higher rate payer: £6,000 at 40% | £2,400.00 |
| Basic rate payer: £6,000 at 20% | £1,200.00 |
| Total tax | £3,600.00 |
| 90/10 to the basic rate payer | |
| Higher rate payer: £1,200 at 40% | £480.00 |
| Basic rate payer: £10,800 at 20% | £2,160.00 |
| Total tax | £2,640.00 |
| The difference | |
| Tax on a 50/50 split | £3,600.00 |
| Less tax on a 90/10 split | −£2,640.00 |
| Difference a year | £960.00 |
It is a well-established route and a perfectly legitimate one, but it only works if the ownership really changes.
England and Wales. One of you pays tax at 40% and the other at 20%. All assumptions and rates
Assumptions and rates
- England and Wales. One of you pays tax at 40% and the other at 20%.
- £12,000 is profit after allowable expenses.
- The finance cost restriction is ignored.
- Both of you stay inside the same tax bands after the change.
- The beneficial ownership genuinely is 90/10 and there is a deed to prove it.
- Income tax 40% for the higher rate payer
- Income tax 20% for the basic rate payer
What is the difference between the two?
GOV.UK puts the difference like this.
If you are joint tenants:
- you have equal rights to the whole property
- the property automatically goes to the other owners if you die
- you cannot pass on your ownership of the property in your will
If you are tenants in common:
- you can own different shares of the property
- your share of the property does not automatically go to the other owners if you die
- you can pass on your share of the property in your will
A joint tenancy is one undivided piece of ownership that the two of you hold together. A tenancy in common is two separate shares that happen to sit inside the same house.
How do I find out which one I signed?
The answer is usually in the paperwork from the purchase. GOV.UK points to the property transfer, the lease or a trust deed, also called a declaration of trust.
If none of that survived the move, the title register costs £7 from HM Land Registry. You are looking for a form A restriction, which reads:
"No disposition by a sole proprietor of the registered estate (except a trust corporation) under which capital money arises is to be registered unless authorised by an order of the court."
Its presence means you are probably tenants in common. Its absence means you are joint tenants, though the words themselves never appear anywhere in the register.
HM Land Registry adds a caveat worth taking seriously. The restriction can be entered by default where the ownership type was not clearly selected on the transfer form, which makes it evidence rather than proof. Where the answer matters, a conveyancer can confirm it.
What happens when one of you dies?
Under a joint tenancy the survivor takes the whole property automatically and your will has nothing to say about it. You can leave your share to your children in black and white and it will still pass to the other owner, because survivorship happens outside the will entirely.
Under a tenancy in common your share passes under your will, or under the intestacy rules if you never made one.
For a married couple who intend to leave everything to each other, that difference often costs nothing in tax. There is normally no Inheritance Tax to pay where everything above the £325,000 threshold goes to a spouse or civil partner. That threshold can rise to £500,000 where a home passes to children or grandchildren, above which the standard rate is 40%.
The damage shows up elsewhere:
- a second marriage, where you want your share to reach children from the first
- an unmarried couple, with no spouse exemption and no automatic inheritance under intestacy
- buying with a sibling, a friend or a business partner
- anyone whose will assumes their share of the house is theirs to leave
How is the rent taxed if we let it out?
This is where landlords get caught, because it works differently depending on whether you are married.
Married couples and civil partners living together are taxed as though income from jointly held property belongs to them in equal shares, under section 836 of the Income Tax Act 2007. HMRC calls it the 50/50 rule. It bites whatever the actual ownership proportions are, so a property held 90/10 still produces rental income taxed down the middle.
Some income sits outside it, including the commercial letting of furnished holiday accommodation, partnership income and income from jointly held shares in a close company.
Being taxed on your real shares instead means a declaration on form 17, under section 837. There are four conditions and each one catches people out:
- The interests have to genuinely be unequal. HMRC is blunt about it: "A declaration cannot be made where a husband and wife or civil partners own property as beneficial joint tenants." Joint tenants hold equal shares by definition, so there is nothing to declare.
- Evidence goes with it, for example a declaration or deed showing the beneficial interests really are unequal.
- It has to reach HMRC within 60 days of the date on the declaration. The manual says the limit "must be enforced strictly" and that there is "no power to extend it", so a late form is simply invalid and you would have to sign a fresh one.
- It runs from the date of the declaration, meaning the day the last of you signed, rather than from the start of the tax year.
If you are not married, none of this applies. Joint owners who are not spouses or civil partners are taxed on their actual beneficial entitlement, on the general rule that whoever owns the property owns the income from it, so siblings and unmarried couples have no form 17 to file and no need of one.
What the split is worth
Take a married couple with a let property producing £12,000 of taxable rental profit, one of them paying tax at 40% and the other at 20%.
| Split | Higher rate payer | Basic rate payer | Total tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50/50, the default | £6,000 at 40% = £2,400 | £6,000 at 20% = £1,200 | £3,600 |
| 90/10 to the basic rate payer | £1,200 at 40% = £480 | £10,800 at 20% = £2,160 | £2,640 |
Scroll sideways to see every column.
That is a difference of £960 a year. The assumptions behind it are doing real work: £12,000 is profit after allowable expenses, the finance cost restriction is ignored, both of you stay inside the same tax bands after the change, the beneficial ownership genuinely is 90/10 and there is a deed to prove it.
The last of those is where people come unstuck. A 90/10 split means one of you actually owns 90% of the house, which is a transfer of value between two people with consequences if the relationship ends. It is a well-established route and a perfectly legitimate one, but it only works if the ownership really changes.
What happens when we sell?
Each owner is taxed on their own share of the gain, so two owners bring two annual exempt amounts. For the 2026 to 2027 tax year that is £3,000 each.
Capital Gains Tax runs at 18% on gains falling inside your basic rate Income Tax band and 24% above it. The home you actually live in is usually exempt. Where tax is due on a UK residential property you have 60 days from completion to report it and pay.
Transfers between spouses are what make any of the planning above possible. You pay no Capital Gains Tax on assets you give or sell to your husband, wife or civil partner, unless you separated and did not live together at all in that tax year, or you gave them goods for their business to sell on. Your spouse inherits your original cost, so the gain is deferred rather than wiped out.
How do we switch from one to the other?
There are two jobs here and they get confused with each other.
Severing the joint tenancy turns you into tenants in common holding equal shares. You download form SEV and send it to HM Land Registry's Citizen Centre, with no fee to pay. Where all the owners agree, that is the whole job. Where they do not, you serve a written notice of severance on them first and send form SEV with a certified copy of it, which means you can make the change without their agreement.
Changing the shares to something other than 50/50 is the second job, which needs a declaration of trust drawn up properly. That is the document form 17 asks you to produce.
Check two costs before moving anything.
- Stamp Duty Land Tax. Taking on a larger share of an outstanding mortgage counts as chargeable consideration. GOV.UK's own example is a property worth £700,000 with a £600,000 mortgage, transferred half to a partner who takes on 50% of the mortgage, which gives chargeable consideration of £300,000. The mortgage does that on its own, without any cash changing hands.
- Capital Gains Tax. No charge between spouses living together. Between anybody else, giving away a share of a property that is not your main home is a disposal at market value.
There is no Stamp Duty Land Tax where you transfer an interest to your partner under an agreement or court order because you are separating or divorcing.
Which suits you?
| Your situation | Usually the better fit |
|---|---|
| Married or civil partners, one home, everything to each other | Joint tenancy, which does what you want with no paperwork |
| Married, a let property, different tax bands | Tenancy in common in real unequal shares, plus form 17 |
| Unmarried couple who put in different deposits | Tenancy in common with a declaration of trust |
| Second marriage, children from the first | Tenancy in common, so your share follows your will |
| Buying with a sibling, a friend or a business partner | Tenancy in common |
What if the property is in Scotland?
Scotland has its own property law and its own vocabulary. The terms there are survivorship destinations and pro indiviso shares, which do not map neatly onto joint tenancy and tenancy in common. Form SEV and HM Land Registry cover England and Wales only, so if your property is in Scotland take Scottish advice rather than applying any of the above.
What should I do about it?
- Find out which one you have. Check the transfer, the lease or the declaration of trust from the purchase. If those have gone, buy the title register for £7 and look for the form A restriction.
- Read your will next to the answer. If you are joint tenants, anything your will says about your share of the property does nothing at all.
- If you let the place out and you are married, look at the split. The default is 50/50 whatever the deeds say. Changing it means changing the real ownership, signing a deed and getting form 17 to HMRC inside 60 days.
How did we check this?
Every fact above is true as of 22 September 2026, checked against GOV.UK, the HMRC Trusts, Settlements and Estates Manual and HM Land Registry. All of it applies to England and Wales.
Rates and thresholds move. The figures here are for the 2026 to 2027 tax year. This is general information about how the rules work rather than advice about your property, because the right answer depends on facts nobody can see from here.
Sources
- Joint property ownership, GOV.UK
- Joint property ownership: check your ownership details, GOV.UK
- Joint property ownership: change from joint tenants to tenants in common, GOV.UK
- Form A restriction: application to enter (SEV), HM Land Registry
- What kind of joint ownership do I have?, HM Land Registry
- Search property information from HM Land Registry, GOV.UK
- TSEM9814: the 50/50 rule and exclusions, HMRC
- TSEM9850: declaration must reflect reality, HMRC
- TSEM9860: when a declaration takes effect, HMRC
- TSEM9862: the 60 day time limit, HMRC
- TSEM9160: beneficial ownership and income, HMRC
- Declare beneficial interests in joint property and income (form 17), GOV.UK
- Capital Gains Tax: rates and allowances, GOV.UK
- Capital Gains Tax: gifts to your spouse or civil partner, GOV.UK
- Report and pay Capital Gains Tax on UK property, GOV.UK
- Stamp Duty Land Tax: transferring ownership of land or property, GOV.UK
- Inheritance Tax, GOV.UK
- Inheritance Tax thresholds and interest rates, GOV.UK
What this doesn’t cover
- Property in Scotland, which has its own property law and its own vocabulary.
- Income outside the 50/50 rule, including the commercial letting of furnished holiday accommodation, partnership income and income from jointly held shares in a close company.
- The finance cost restriction on mortgage interest, which the worked example ignores.
- Advice about your own property, because the right answer depends on facts nobody can see from here.
Common questions
No. Under a joint tenancy the survivor takes the whole property automatically and your will has nothing to say about it.
Check the transfer, the lease or the declaration of trust from the purchase. If those have gone, buy the title register for £7 from HM Land Registry and look for the form A restriction.
No. You send form SEV to HM Land Registry's Citizen Centre with no fee to pay. Where the other owners do not agree, you serve a written notice of severance on them first.
No. Joint owners who are not spouses or civil partners are taxed on their actual beneficial entitlement, so they have no form 17 to file and no need of one.
60 days from the date on the declaration. HMRC has no power to extend it, so a late form is invalid and you would have to sign a fresh one.
A short email before each deadline that costs money to miss, and when a new guide goes up.