Joint ownership in community

Joint ownership in community exists where persons bound by a statutory or contractual partnership own property together without defined shares. Its most common source is the community of heirs, who hold the estate in this form until division.

Its distinctive feature is that each owner's interest extends over the whole: no one has a concrete share to dispose of alone, and dispositions over the property in principle require the unanimity of all owners. This structure means that even a single owner's refusal can block a sale or similar transaction.

To break the deadlock, heirs may conclude a partition agreement, or ask the court to convert the community into ownership in shares or to dissolve it altogether. A creditor of one owner may also attach that owner's liquidation share and demand dissolution. This form of ownership is very often the legal explanation for inherited property remaining unsellable for years.