Can I Leave My Share of a House in My Will?

Before deciding how to leave a share of a house in your will, confirm how the property is actually owned. This is recorded on the title register at HM Land Registry, which can be checked for a modest fee. If the register shows a Form A restriction, the property is held as tenants in common, and your share can be left under your will.

If there is no such restriction, the property is most likely held as beneficial joint tenants, meaning there is no individual share for your will to deal with, and the whole property will pass automatically to the surviving owner when you die.

If you are a tenant in common, your will can leave your share of the property to anyone you choose: a spouse or partner, your children, a combination of beneficiaries in specified proportions, or into a trust. It is worth being precise about the address and the fact that you are leaving 'my share' of the property, since imprecise wording can cause confusion during probate.

Think through the practical consequences too. Leaving your share to someone other than your co-owner means they will end up owning the property jointly with a stranger to the original relationship, which can create tension over decisions such as selling the property or living in it. Many people address this by giving the co-owner a right to buy out the share, or a right to remain living there for a period, rather than leaving a bare share outright.

If you currently own as joint tenants and want your will to be able to leave your interest to someone else, you first need to sever the joint tenancy, converting it into a tenancy in common. This is usually done by serving a written notice of severance on your co-owner, after which each of you holds a defined share, typically equal unless you agree otherwise.

Once severed, it is sensible to register a Form A restriction at HM Land Registry to record the change, and to make or update your will at the same time, since the automatic survivorship rule no longer applies to your share once it has been severed.

A frequent and avoidable mistake is writing a will that leaves 'my share of the house' to someone, without realising the property is actually held as joint tenants. In that situation the clause simply has no legal effect: there is no individual share to give, and the whole property passes to the surviving joint owner regardless of the will's wording.

This is why checking the ownership type is the essential first step before deciding how to word a gift of property in your will, rather than an afterthought.

Once you know your ownership position, an online will service can generally handle a straightforward gift of a share in a property clearly and correctly. My Posh Will is an online guided will service for England and Wales that guides you through describing property gifts accurately, including shares held as tenants in common.

A single will costs £69 and mirror wills cost £89, both one-off payments with lifetime access, and most people finish in around ten minutes, with instructions on signing and witnessing included. If you want a trust structure around the share, for example to let a partner remain living there, take individual legal advice to make sure it is drafted correctly.