Many people own property jointly, this means that they both own 100% of the value of a property. For some this is not the best way to own their property.  It gives less flexibility when the person dies and wishes to pass on the property to other family members, relatives or friends.

As part of the work we do we often use a Deed of Severance to sever tenancies to split how a property is owned, changing ownership to tenants in common.

Changing a property to be owned as tenants in common, does not effect anything other than the way the property is held and registered but can be very advantages.

With married couples and couples living in civil partnerships assets can be freely passed to each other without incurring a capital gain. Typically we will sever a tenancy to allow each partner to own 50% of the value of a property.  This throws up greater potential for Inheritance Tax saving when combined with one of our Inheritance Tax saving Will packages.

In some circumstances it is also possible to sever a tenancy to give an uneven split of the properties value.  This can be useful when attempting to balance the value of assets owned by each partner.  This again can be useful in the Inheritance Tax Planning process.

IF you would like to find our more about using a Deed of Severance please give call us on 0845 3700 240.