Chapter 8 first provides an overview of the stipulations regarding how things held in tenancy in common (the most common co-ownership form of property around the world) should be administered and sold, as well as co-owner agreements not to partition. Then, Chapter 8 addresses whether the several types of rules lead to underuse or overuse — that is, whether tenancy in common may lead to tragedy of the commons or anticommons. The prevalent doctrine that provides one co-owner with a unilateral power to call for partition avoids a long-term tragedy but underinvestment and underuse of co-owned resources are still likely. This chapter ends with a proposed solution to ameliorate the underinvestment and underuse problems.

This chapter considers the principles applying to co-ownership, the situation where one or more persons or entities jointly owns property. It begins by examining joint tenancies and tenancies in common and the way such interests are created, the various obligations and rights attending to each and how co-ownership may be terminated. With the recent increase in apartment-style living in Australia’s larger cities, new forms of co-ownership were called for. The response was, first, the creation of company title and, from the 1960s onwards, new legislative forms of title reflected through the creation of strata and community title. These forms of co-ownership and the legislative regimes which underpin them form the focus of the second half of this chapter. In bringing together the legal framework governing co-ownership and the specific legislative regimes which apply to community living , this chapter draws together the law in relation to community of ownership in larger perspective and in one place, enabling an appreciation of this area of property law’s development as a response to changing social, commercial and community conditions.