What Is a Tenancy in Common in California?

A tenancy in common is California's default form of co-ownership. Each tenant in common holds an undivided fractional interest in the whole property. The shares can be unequal, each owner can sell, mortgage, or leave their share to heirs, and every co-owner has the right to possess the entire property regardless of share size.

The defining feature is what a tenancy in common does not have: a right of survivorship. When a tenant in common dies, their share passes through their will, trust, or intestate succession, not to the surviving co-owners. That is the key difference from joint tenancy. TIC arrangements are common among investors, unmarried couples, siblings who inherit together, and, in cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco, as a formal ownership structure for shared buildings governed by a TIC agreement.

Disputes among tenants in common usually involve unequal contributions, one owner occupying the property while others pay the bills, or a co-owner who wants out. The exit ramp, when agreement fails, is a partition action.

How a Tenancy in Common Actually Works

Tenants in common each own an undivided fractional interest in the whole property rather than a specific physical piece of it. Shares can be unequal, one owner holding seventy percent and another thirty, and they can be acquired at different times from different sources. California treats tenancy in common as the default form of co-ownership when two or more people take title without specifying otherwise.

Critically, there is no right of survivorship. When a tenant in common dies, their share passes through their will, their trust, or intestate succession, not automatically to the surviving co-owners.

Rights and Obligations Between Cotenants

Each cotenant generally has the right to possess and use the entire property, regardless of the size of their share. One owner with a ten percent interest has the same possessory right as one with ninety. That is the root of most cotenancy disputes.

Each is generally responsible for a proportionate share of taxes, insurance, mortgage payments, and necessary repairs, and an owner who advances more than their share can usually claim contribution or a credit in a later accounting. An owner excluded from the property by another may have an ouster claim, which can also trigger liability for the reasonable rental value of the exclusive use.

Ending a Tenancy in Common

Any cotenant can generally sell or encumber their own fractional interest without the others' consent, though in practice few buyers or lenders want a minority interest in a home occupied by strangers. The realistic exits are agreement, a negotiated buyout, or a partition action.

A well drafted tenancy in common agreement, signed at acquisition, is by far the cheapest way to avoid all of this. It can allocate expenses, set buyout mechanics and valuation methods, address occupancy, and impose a right of first refusal before an interest is sold to an outsider.