A TIC agreement is the contract among co-owners who hold property as tenants in common: it sets each owner’s share and the rules for money, occupancy, exits, and what happens when an owner dies. California law does not require one, which is exactly why the co-ownerships that skip it end up in court. VK Law drafts and reviews TIC agreements across California and helps co-owners choose the right ownership form in the first place.
- Tenancy in common has no survivorship: each owner’s share passes through their own estate, and without a living trust, that usually means probate.
- A TIC agreement puts the exit rules in writing before there is a fight: expenses, occupancy, selling, death, and default.
- Without an agreement, any co-owner can generally go to court to force a partition: a sale or division of the property.
- How you hold title is an estate-planning decision as much as a real estate one.
- To talk with VK Law about co-ownership, call 877-780-4727.
The Four Ways Californians Co-Own Property
California law recognizes four forms of ownership by several persons (joint interests, partnership interests, interests in common, and the community interest of spouses), listed in Civil Code section 682. In practice, the choice usually comes down to:
- Joint tenancy: equal shares with a right of survivorship; when one owner dies, the survivors absorb the share automatically.
- Tenancy in common (TIC): shares can be unequal, and each share passes through the deceased owner’s estate, not to the co-owners.
- Community property: for spouses, with its own tax and survivorship rules.
- Trust ownership: title held by the trustee of a revocable living trust. For many families this is the strongest choice: the owners keep full control, and the property passes without probate.
Our guide to how to hold title in California compares these in detail, and our property title and estate planning page explains how title choices play out when someone dies.
What a TIC Agreement Covers
Tenancy in common is the default when unrelated people buy property together: friends pooling for a duplex, investors sharing a rental, or buyers in a fractional arrangement like San Francisco’s TIC buildings, where each owner holds a percentage of the whole building paired with the exclusive right to occupy one unit. The deed says who owns what percentage. The TIC agreement answers everything else:
- Each owner’s share, contribution, and what happens if someone stops paying
- Who occupies what, and on what terms
- How taxes, insurance, repairs, and improvements are split
- Whether and how an owner can sell, and whether the others get a right of first refusal
- What happens on an owner’s death, disability, divorce, or bankruptcy
- How disputes get resolved, before anyone files a lawsuit
Without an Agreement: Partition
When co-owners fall out and there is no contract to point to, California’s default answer is partition: a co-owner may generally ask a court to divide the property or order it sold, under Code of Civil Procedure section 872.210. Partition litigation is expensive and rarely leaves anyone happy: a well-drafted TIC agreement addresses that right in advance and replaces it with a process the owners actually chose. When a co-ownership dispute is already live, our California civil litigation practice handles it.
TIC Shares and Your Estate Plan
A tenancy-in-common share has no survivorship, so it passes under the owner’s will or trust, and if there is neither, under intestacy rules, usually through probate. That makes the estate plan part of the co-ownership design, not an afterthought:
- Holding your TIC share in a revocable living trust can keep it out of probate and puts a successor trustee in charge without a court.
- The TIC agreement should say what the co-owners must accept when a share changes hands: a trust transfer the agreement anticipates is smooth; one it forbids is a dispute.
- Married co-owners choosing between community property and TIC face tax and survivorship trade-offs worth mapping with counsel.
Our California trust and estate practice designs the plan and prepares the trust transfers, so the real estate and the estate plan agree with each other.
Side by Side: How the Forms Compare
| Feature | Joint tenancy | Tenancy in common | Living trust |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unequal shares | No: equal only | Yes | Yes (trust terms) |
| What happens at death | Survivors absorb the share | Share passes through the owner’s estate | Passes per the trust, no probate |
| Probate exposure | Deferred until last owner | Yes, absent a trust or TOD deed | Avoided for trust assets |
| Typical fit | Couples wanting simplicity | Unrelated co-owners, unequal money | Families planning ahead |
Fractional TIC Buildings
In San Francisco and a few other markets, tenancy in common is also a housing product: buyers purchase a percentage of an entire building paired with the exclusive right to occupy a specific unit, all governed by a detailed TIC agreement. These deals run on the strength of that document: occupancy assignments, group loan or fractional-loan mechanics, default and forced-sale provisions, reserves, and decision rules. Buying into one without reading the agreement closely is buying a business partnership sight unseen; we review them before you commit.
Buyouts and Exits
The most valuable clauses in a TIC agreement are the exit clauses: how a departing owner’s share is valued (appraisal mechanics beat arguments), whether the remaining owners get a right of first refusal, how long a buyout can take, and what triggers a forced sale. Owners who negotiated those terms at purchase resolve departures in weeks; owners who did not often end up in partition litigation.
How We Help
We draft TIC agreements for new co-ownerships, review and fix agreements written for someone else’s deal, advise buyers entering fractional TIC purchases, coordinate title choices with each owner’s estate plan, and represent co-owners when the relationship breaks down. Buying together starts with the purchase itself: we handle that too, as part of our California real estate practice.
To talk with VK Law about a TIC agreement, call 877-780-4727. The consultation is free.
Reviewed by Alan Khalfin, Managing Partner (California). Last reviewed: July 8, 2026.
This page is general information, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Frequently Asked Questions
A contract among co-owners who hold property as tenants in common. It records each owner’s percentage and sets the rules for expenses, occupancy, selling, death, and default: the questions California law otherwise leaves to a courtroom. The deed says who owns; the TIC agreement says how the ownership actually works.
Survivorship. Joint tenants hold equal shares, and a deceased owner’s share passes automatically to the surviving joint tenants. Tenants in common can hold unequal shares, and each share passes through that owner’s own estate, to whoever their will, trust, or the intestacy rules name.
That is when you need it most. Co-ownership disputes are usually between people who started out close, and without an agreement, the default resolution is a partition lawsuit. Writing the rules down while everyone is still getting along is cheap insurance.
Often, yes: a TIC share is your separate property interest and can generally be transferred to your revocable living trust, which keeps it out of probate. The TIC agreement should be drafted to anticipate trust transfers so the move does not violate its transfer restrictions.
Any co-owner can generally file a partition action asking the court to divide or sell the property. Partition cases are costly and slow, and the outcome is imposed rather than negotiated, which is precisely what a TIC agreement exists to prevent.
Both. We draft agreements for new co-ownerships, review and renegotiate existing ones, advise on fractional TIC purchases, and coordinate the agreement with each owner’s estate plan through our trust and estate practice.
A condo owner holds a separately deeded legal unit; a TIC owner holds a percentage of the whole property paired with a contractual right to occupy part of it. Condos are governed by recorded CC&Rs and an HOA; a TIC runs on its agreement, which is why the agreement’s quality matters so much.
