When a person dies without a will, the State effectively supplies a will by default via the laws of intestate succession. The laws of intestate succession may trigger a transfer of real property--"Land, and generally whatever is erected or growing upon or affixed to land" (Black 1983, 636)--in the form of tenancy in common. Tenancy in common is a form of joint ownership in which cotenants have an undivided partial interest in property. If a cotenant dies intestate, any interest in property passes to his heirs (Black). An undivided partial interest allows a cotenant (subject to the rights of other cotenants) to use the entire property as if it were his own regardless of the size of his partial interest in the property. Tenancy in common that is the result of an inter-generational transfer of property through intestate succession is often referred to as heir property (Mitchell 2001). Tenancy in common is a legal form of real property and is not necessarily the result of the laws of intestate succession. Some people choose to hold property as tenants in common. Some purposefully will their property to their heirs as tenants in common.
