property owned by two

[nottelybill]

My brother and I have a piece of property we own as tenents in common. There is an existing house and my brother wants to build his own place. We want to keep the property as tenents in common but his house will be worth more than mine when completed. How do we address the fact that the two perminent sturctures will be owned individually. I thought maybe we could put a caveat in the deed that ownership of the real property will addressed in a seperate document. Any ideas???

[tarheit]

First thing you need to do is check with zoning to make sure you can put two structures on the property. Next I would really consider splitting the property if at all possible (it just would solve so many potential headaches... what happens if one party moves, or one party has financial troubles, lien against the property due to the other owner, either party wants to take a loan against the property (the bank will see it as one deed=one property), one party doesn't pay his share of the taxes or take care of his property, assessments, etc.) It can be a real mess. If there are access issues that prevent the property from being split, these usually can be addressed with easements (ie. shared drive, utility easement, etc.)

If you must keep the property as a whole, there is no reason you can't have a separate contract/agreement that when the property sells each 'structure' will be appraised separately and each party would get that percentage of the sale. Same for property taxes, assessments, etc.

-Tim