Severance of joint tenancy

It is well known that joint owners of land always hold the legal estate in trust, as joint tenants. This is of course administratively simple. If one of the joint owners dies the legal estate is automatically vested in the survivors. It is therefore relatively simple for outsiders to identify those who are the owners of the legal estate, at any time. The beneficial interests may of course be more complex. In particular, the beneficial interest may be held on a tenancy in common, under which the surviving joint owners do not automatically inherit the share of one of their number who has died. Indeed, the natural wishes of one of the joint owners to choose his beneficiaries without winning a tontine means that the joint tenancy may be highly unsatisfactory. It is well known that one of two or more joint tenants may sever the joint tenancy, by unilaterally giving notice of his desire to sever the joint tenancy, to the other joint tenants. There are however other measures of severing a joint tenancy, as was made clear by the High Court’s decision in Quigley v Masterson [2011] EWHC 2529 (Ch).