法律英语词汇“joint tenancy”的翻译、意思、用法、释义-法律词典

joint tenancy
Ownership of land by two or more persons who have identical interests in the whole of the land (compare tenancy in common). A joint tenancy can arise only when four conditions (the four unities) are satisfied.

1. Each joint tenant must be entitled to possession at the same time.

2. The estate or interest each has in the land must be identical; each joint tenant is entitled to the whole property and has no exclusive entitlement to any separate part of it (see undivided shares).

3. Each must have the same title to the land, i.e. their ownership must be traced from the same instrument, such as a conveyance “to A and B as joint tenants”.

4. Each joint tenant’s interest must vest at and subsist for the same time.

Under a joint tenancy the right of survivorship applies: thus ownership of the entire interest in the property passes automatically on the death of one joint tenant to the survivor(s). The last survivor becomes the sole and absolute owner.

Under the Law of Property Act 1925 a distinction is made between a legal and an equitable joint tenancy. When two or more persons hold the legal estate, they invariably hold it as joint tenants, and the right of survivorship applies. When the conveyance to them contains no words indicating that they are entitled to the property in undivided shares (words of severance), there is a presumption that they hold as joint tenants in equity and the right of survivorship again applies (Stack v Dowden [2007] 2 AC 432). However, when they take distinct and separate shares, or when the equitable joint tenancy has been terminated (as by notice of severance, partition, etc.), or when the presumption against joint tenancy can be rebutted (Jones v Kernott [2011] UKSC 53, [2002] 1 AC 776), the equitable interest is held by them as tenants in common. However the equitable (or beneficial) interests are structured, the legal estate is always held by joint tenants as trustees upon a statutory trust of land (Trust of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996; TOLATA), and the trustees are accountable to those who hold the equitable interests—in the proportions to which they are entitled if they are tenants in common—for the property. The owners in equity have many rights under the trust of land, such as the right to be consulted and the right to occupy the property. Any joint tenant may apply to the court under section 14 of TOLATA for an order relating to the exercise by the trustees of any of their functions, including sale of the property. The court may make such order as it thinks fit.