Tenants in Common: 4 Rules to Protect Your 2026 Sale

Tenants in common means two or more people each own a separate share of the same house. The whole house sells only when every owner signs. Four rules protect a tenants in common sale from the fights I see most often. I’ll define the term, list the four rules, then cover holdouts, a co-owner’s death, and what listing costs.

What tenants in common means

Cornell’s legal dictionary calls a tenancy in common one of three types of concurrent estates.¹ That is an estate with shared ownership, where each owner owns a share of the property.¹ The other two are joint tenancy and tenancy by the entirety.¹ Concurrent just means at the same time. Nobody owns the kitchen; each of you owns a slice of the whole thing.

Two features set tenants in common apart. Shares can be unequal, and each share can be transferred during the owner’s lifetime or by will.¹ And there is typically no right of survivorship.¹ Cornell’s example: if A and B are tenants in common and A dies, A’s share does not go to B. It goes to the party named in A’s will.¹

Unequal shares don’t buy unequal use. If A owns one-third and B owns two-thirds, both have the right to occupy the entire property.¹ What the bigger share buys is a bigger cut of the money at closing. That’s the whole reason a seller needs to know which form is on the deed.

I’ve stopped asking families how they hold title, because the one who is wrong about it finds out at the closing table. Courts have a default here. When a deed doesn’t clearly show an intent to create survivorship, courts typically read it as a tenancy in common rather than a joint tenancy.¹ Florida writes that default into statute. A conveyance to two or more people creates a tenancy in common unless the instrument expressly provides for the right of survivorship.⁴

Cornell’s joint tenancy entry supplies the other column. Each owner’s interest is equal, and survivors absorb a deceased owner’s interest.² Altering one of the four unities extinguishes the joint tenancy.² The sibling piece on joint tenants with right of survivorship covers that column in full. Married couples in some states hold a third form, tenancy by the entirety, which has its own rules.

The 4 rules that protect a tenants in common sale

Definition pages stop where the trouble starts. These are the four rules I’d tape to the fridge before a co-owned house goes on the market, in the order they bite.

1. Read the recorded deed, not the family memory. Pull it from the county recorder and read the line that names the owners. If it says nothing about survivorship, you are most likely tenants in common.¹ I once sat with three siblings who each remembered a different split, and the deed agreed with none of them.
2. Every owner signs, or the house doesn’t sell. One owner can sell their own share. In Cornell’s example, if B sells his two-thirds share to C, A still keeps his one-third.¹ Selling the whole house takes every name on the deed, on the listing agreement and on the closing documents.
3. The money follows the recorded share. Not who paid the mortgage, and not who replaced the roof. Shares can be unequal, and the split at closing is whatever the deed says.¹ Costs come off the top first. Only then do the shares apply.
4. A holdout is a court problem, not a listing problem. If one owner won’t sign, no listing service can fix it. The tool is a partition action, and any co-owner can file one.³

I treat rule 1 as the one that pays for the other three, because skipping it means you learn which rule you broke from the buyer’s title company. Rules 2 through 4 cost you a signature, a spreadsheet or a lawyer. Rule 1 costs twenty minutes on the recorder’s website.

Order a title search at the same time. The report that shows what a title search costs also shows how title is vested and which liens sit on which share. A lien is simply a recorded claim against an owner’s slice.

A worked split makes rule 3 real. Say the house sells at the national median of $434,100 and a 3% listing fee comes off the top.¹⁴ That leaves $421,077 before the other closing costs. A one-third owner’s share of that figure is $140,359 and a two-thirds owner’s share is $280,718. Whoever paid the mortgage for the last decade gets the same answer.

When a co-owner refuses to sell

Two of you want out and one doesn’t. Families hope a live listing will apply pressure. It won’t, and the buyer who shows up finds one signature missing. The word you need is partition.

Cornell defines a partition as a division of concurrent interests in land.³ Where land is held as tenants in common, any co-owner may end their own participation by compelling one.³ If the property can’t fairly be divided in kind, it is sold by judicial process and the proceeds divided.³ A single-family house almost never divides in kind, because nobody gets the upstairs.

Florida spells out the mechanics. Chapter 64 lets any one or more tenants in common file the action against their cotenants.⁵ If the court is satisfied the land can’t be split without prejudice to the owners, it may order a public sale.⁶ The money is then divided among the parties in proportion to their interest.⁶

Ohio’s statute says tenants in common may be compelled to make or suffer partition.⁷ Once a plaintiff shows a legal right to any part of the estate, the court orders partition, appoints a commissioner and issues a writ.⁸

Now the part that costs us business. If a co-owner refuses to sign, don’t buy a listing, ours or anyone’s. I’d rather turn away your $95 than take it for a listing that can’t close, because a listing with a missing signature is a lawsuit with photos attached. Start with whether you need a lawyer to sell the house, file the partition, and list when every signature exists. Sellers in Florida and Ohio both have statutes that make this a real path rather than a threat.

When a tenant in common dies

There is no survivorship, so the dead owner’s share goes to whoever their will names, not to the other owners.¹ That heir becomes your new co-owner. Sometimes it’s a sibling you know, and sometimes it’s a stepchild you’ve met twice. Either way, the sale now needs that person’s signature once the estate transfers the share.

The tax basis changes only for that share. Section 1014 gives property acquired from a decedent a basis equal to its fair market value at the date of death.⁹ IRS Publication 523 says the same for an inherited home: your basis is the fair market value on the date of the decedent’s death.¹⁰ Publication 551 lists that date-of-death value as the general rule for inherited property.¹¹ Your own share never passed from anyone, so it keeps the basis you started with.

Each owner then handles their own gain. Publication 523 lets you exclude the first $250,000 of gain on the sale of your main home, or $500,000 for a married couple filing jointly, if you meet the conditions.¹⁰ A sibling who never lived there has no main home to exclude.

I send every inheriting co-owner to a CPA before we talk price, because the one who skips it pays tax on gain a date-of-death appraisal would have wiped out. Two numbers matter: the value on the date of death and each owner’s original cost.

Recording the new deed is the cheap part. Florida’s clerk charges $5 for the first page and $4 for each additional page, plus $1 for the first page and 50 cents per additional page for a records trust fund.¹² Ohio charges $34 for the first two pages, plus a preservation surcharge of up to $5.¹³ The estate side of this, from probate to the listing, is covered in selling an inherited house.

What commission costs three owners at the median

Picture three siblings holding a house as tenants in common, a third each. Almost none of the families I meet do the commission math before they pick a path, so here it is. The July 2026 median existing-home price was $434,100, up 2.0% from $425,700 a year earlier.¹⁴ Sales sat on a 4.6-month supply, the same as a year ago.¹⁴ A normal market, in other words, where the fee is worth arguing about.

At that price a 3% listing-side fee is $13,023 and 2.5% is $10,852.50. The HomeRise Essentials plan is $95 to list plus $495 at closing, charged only if the home sells, so $590 in total. The gap is $12,433 at 3% and $10,262.50 at 2.5%.

Divided three ways, each sibling keeps $4,144 more than with a 3% agent, or $3,421 more than at 2.5%. On a co-owned sale nobody feels the commission as one number, because it gets split before anyone sees a wire. That is exactly why it gets waved through.

Colorado is priced differently: $95 to list plus $3,495 at settlement. I’d rather say that in the same breath as the math than bury it, because a seller who finds the Colorado number at settlement stops trusting the rest of the table. Our homepage also says sellers save an average of $11,785. An average is not a promise about your house, so use the table, not the mean. The gap above is the listing side only; a buyer’s agent commission, if you offer one, is separate.

A flat fee MLS listing puts the house in front of the same buyers a full-commission listing reaches. The for sale by owner route means the three of you run the showings and the negotiation. Both only work when all three of you will sign, which is the point of the four rules.

The deed does the math. Whoever paid the mortgage and whoever fixed the roof, the recorded share is the split.

So the order is short: read the vesting line, then get every signature or get a lawyer. If an owner has died, take the date-of-death value to a CPA. Then list, and let the three of you split $12,433 instead of handing it over.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can one person sell a house owned as tenants in common?

Not the whole house. One owner can sell their own share, as in Cornell’s example where B sells a two-thirds share to C and A keeps one-third. Selling the entire property takes every owner’s signature.

What happens to a tenants in common share when an owner dies?

It goes to whoever the owner’s will names, not to the other owners, because this form of ownership has no right of survivorship. The heir becomes a co-owner and must sign to sell. Under section 1014 that inherited share takes a basis equal to its fair market value at the date of death.

Do tenants in common have to split proceeds equally?

No. Shares can be unequal, and the proceeds follow the recorded shares after costs come off the top. Side deals about who paid more belong in writing with a lawyer, because the deed wins at closing.

Can a tenant in common force a sale?

Yes, through a partition action. Florida lets any one or more tenants in common file against their cotenants, and the court can order a sale when the land can’t be divided without prejudice to the owners. Ohio’s statute allows the same.

Is tenants in common the same as joint tenants?

No. Joint tenants hold equal interests with a right of survivorship, so a deceased owner’s interest passes to the survivors. Tenants in common can hold unequal shares that pass by will, and courts presume that form when a deed is silent.

Can tenants in common list on the MLS without an agent?

Yes, if every owner signs the listing agreement. A flat fee MLS listing with HomeRise costs $95 plus $495 at closing, or $95 plus $3,495 in Colorado. No listing lets one tenant in common force the others to sell.

Sources

1. Cornell Law School, Legal Information Institute, Wex: tenancy in common
2. Cornell Law School, Legal Information Institute, Wex: joint tenancy
3. Cornell Law School, Legal Information Institute, Wex: partition
4. Florida Statutes § 689.15, Estates by survivorship
5. Florida Statutes § 64.031, Partition of property: parties
6. Florida Statutes § 64.071, Sale where nondivisible
7. Ohio Revised Code § 5307.01, Persons compelled to partition
8. Ohio Revised Code § 5307.04, Order of partition
9. 26 U.S.C. § 1014, Basis of property acquired from a decedent
10. IRS Publication 523, Selling Your Home
11. IRS Publication 551, Basis of Assets
12. Florida Statutes § 28.24, Service charges by clerk of the circuit court
13. Ohio Revised Code § 317.32, Recording fees
14. National Association of REALTORS, Existing-Home Sales Report, August 11, 2026