Owning real estate with other people is often accomplished by taking title to the property as tenants in common, sometimes called tenancy in common. The number of people who can be on title to one property is unlimited. Building on property with numerous owners is not impossible, but know the rights of each owner before you undertake such a building project.

Ownership Rights

Each co-owner of real estate held as tenants in common has the right of possession. One co-owner, or group of co-owners, cannot exclude any other co-owner from entering and occupying the property. This is true even if the ownership interest among the various co-owners is not equal (for example, a 10 percent owner has the same right to possession of the entire property as does a 40 percent owner. Whether or not any construction on the property is feasible depends on how the co-owners are using and occupying the property. If one co-owner is living in a house on the property that would have to be demolished for a building project favored by the other owners, the co-owner living on the property cannot be forcibly removed to permit the project to go forward.

TIC Agreement

You can avoid the problem of an uncooperative co-owner by preparing and signing an agreement by all co-owners specifying how the property will be used, usually called a tenants-in-common agreement or TIC agreement. The laws that give each co-owner an equal right to possess and use the entire property regardless of his percentage of ownership interests can be overcome with a properly drafted TIC agreement that specifies how the owners will use the property. Ideally, such an agreement will be signed before the owners purchase the property, but it can still be made after the purchase, although no existing co-owner can be forced to sign the agreement.

Partition Action

If you do not have a TIC agreement and the co-owners cannot agree on important aspects of ownership, such as whether to go forward with a building project on the property, the property will most likely have to be partitioned to resolve the dispute. Each state has laws providing for partitioning real property. In California, these laws are found at Code of Civil Procedure Sections 872.010 through 874.240, and will generally result in either the interest of the uncooperative co-owner being purchased by the other co-owners or the property being sold with the net proceedings of the sale being distributed among the co-owners according to their percentage of ownership interest. In rare cases, the property may be partitioned "in-kind" by a physical division of the property to the various co-owners. Partitions can be voluntary or be forced by any one co-owner by the filing of a lawsuit requesting a court to partition the property.

Source:

Nolo: Tenancy in Common

Code of Civil Procedure Sections 872.010 through 874.240

Lawyers.com: Partition Action