Key terms

The value of property as determined by the marketplace (or objective purchasers) rather than as determined by a subjective individual. This is what an informed and unpressured buyer would pay to an informed, unpressured seller in an arm's length transaction (the price is based solely on the value of the property, as opposed to selling the property to a family member and giving them a special deal).

An involuntary transaction that occurs in the form and at the time specified by law that typically results in property being sold at prices that are substantially below the fair market value of the property.

Two or more people co-own an asset, sharing costs, expenses, income and benefits relative to the percentage of ownership. Each party's percentage of ownership is a fraction of the value of the property.

A person who may legally receive property or assets from a deceased person's estate when there is no will or trust in place.

A person entitled to succeed to the real property of a person who dies intestate.

Land that has been passed down by an owner who dies a) with a will leaving undivided property to multiple relatives or b) without a will so the property passes via the state laws of intestacy. Owners of heirs’ property are tenants in common.

Refers to when a person dies without a valid will. The distribution of the deceased's property and who inherits the deceased’s assets will be governed by the laws of intestacy, which vary from state to state. The estate of a person who has died intestate goes through probate court.

A tenancy with two or more co-owners who take identical interests simultaneously by the same instrument and the same right of possession. A joint tenancy differs from tenancy in common because each tenant has a right of survivorship to the other's share.

Partitions may be compulsory (judicial) or voluntary. Property can always be partitioned by the consent of the owners. Where land is held in joint tenancy or tenancy in common, any of the co-owners may end their participation in the entity by forcing a partition. If the property cannot equitably be partitioned in kind, it will be sold by judicial process, and the proceeds paid out accordingly.

The property is forcibly sold in its entirety with the proceeds of the sale distributed among the co-tenants, again in proportion to their relative interests in the property.

The division of property between multiple owners into physically distinct and separately titled parcels with each sub-parcel proportionate in value to each cotenant’s fractional interest.

The court process by which a will is proved valid or invalid. Also, the legal process wherein the estate of a decedent is administered.

Land, and anything growing on, affixed to or built upon land.

Two or more tenants hold the land by separate and distinct titles, but with each person having an equal right to possess the whole property. Each tenant: has equal rights to full use and possession of the real property; is legally responsible for taxes and other real property-related expenses; may transfer interest in the real property to another heir or outsider without any requirement for permission of the other owners; may seek a partition of the real property; must agree to any major decisions about the real property (unanimity required for all matters). This joint ownership is called “tenancy in common.”

A private agreement between fellow co-tenants that often governs buyout provisions and the ownership and partition of the property.

A uniform law drafted by the Uniform Law Commission for possible adoption by state legislatures that seeks to remedy the serious problems with tenancy-in-common property. The Act establishes default rules for the partition of real property owned by families under a tenancy in common. The Act does not seek to make wholesale changes to the law of partition and does not apply to any real property that is the subject of a written tenancy-in-common agreement that contains a provision governing the partition of the property (all such agreements typically contain such a provision) or that is owned under any other form of ownership (e.g., a joint tenancy, a limited liability company, a partnership, a limited partnership, a trust or a corporation) other than the tenancy in common.