Co-ownership agreement: template

For people who own land together outright. Fill the blanks, delete what does not apply, and sign it before anyone builds — not after the first disagreement.

When several people own a piece of ground, each holding an undivided share of the whole — technically, tenants in common — then by default every one of them is an owner of everything. No company, no registration: it is done by deed, and it is the cheapest and fastest way to share land. It is also the shape that turns into a slow-burn dispute, because the defaults are unforgiving:

Any one owner can apply to the court to force a sale of the whole. The statutory basis is s.31, Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009, and the court has a discretion rather than an obligation to order a sale.
A death, divorce or bankruptcy of one owner drags the others in.
You need unanimity for anything material unless you have written an agreement saying otherwise.

This document is that agreement. It exists to replace the defaults.

Use it this way. Sections 1–8 are the agreement. Section 9 lists the clauses that actually get used, and section 10 sets out the tax position, which is the part people skip and later regret.

1. The parties and the shares

This agreement is between the owners of [describe the land: townland, area, folio reference] ("the land"), who hold the land as tenants in common in the following shares:

Owner	Share	Amount contributed on purchase
[name]	e.g. 25%	€
[name]	e.g. 25%	€
[name]	e.g. 25%	€
[name]	e.g. 25%	€

Shares may be unequal. Say so deliberately and write down why, because unequal shares and equal voting rights are a combination that causes arguments unless it is spelled out.

2. What each owner may and may not do

Each owner may occupy and use their own defined area of the land, being [describe each area, or attach a map as Schedule 1].
The shared areas are [list them: the lane, the well, the yard, the growing ground, the woodland], and are used by all owners on equal terms.
No owner may fence off, plant, build on or take exclusive use of a shared area without the written agreement of all the others.
No owner may mortgage or charge the land, or their share, without [the written agreement of all owners / the written agreement of a majority, being X%].
No owner may do anything that [damages the land / breaches the planning permission / takes land out of the use agreed in clause 3].

3. What the land may be used for

The land shall be used only for [residential use and small-scale growing / growing and farming / residential plus woodland and growing], and for no other purpose without the written agreement of all owners. The agreed plan, if any, is attached as Schedule 2.

4. Selling: pre-emption

An owner who wants to sell their share must follow this order:

Offer it to the other owners first, in writing, stating the price and terms they are asking.
The other owners have [30] days to accept, in the proportions set out in [clause 1 / as agreed]. If more than one wants it, they take it [in proportion to their existing shares / in the order agreed].
If the offer is not taken up, the owner may sell to an outside buyer — but only on terms [no better than those offered to the other owners / agreed in writing by the others], and only to a buyer who signs a deed agreeing to be bound by this agreement.
Who may buy. A sale to an outside buyer is [permitted / permitted only with the written agreement of all the other owners / subject to the criteria in Schedule 3].

Pre-emption with no criteria attached is decoration. If anyone can buy in, the clause you wrote about "who may sell and to whom" does not achieve anything. Decide whether you are protecting a place, a purpose, or just a group of friends — and write the answer as a test a stranger could apply.

5. How value is set

Where a share is bought by another owner or by the group, the price is [agreed between the parties / the market value of the share determined by an independent valuer].
The valuer is appointed [by agreement / by the President of the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) / by the body named here], and their decision is [final and binding / capable of being reviewed only on the ground of manifest error].
The cost of the valuation is shared [equally / in proportion to shares].
Value includes [land only / land plus buildings / land plus buildings plus agreed improvements]. Say which — it decides how much a departing owner is paid.

6. Death

On the death of an owner, their share passes [to the other owners, who may buy it at a valuation under clause 5 / to the person named in their will / to their personal representatives, who are bound by this agreement].
The other owners have [90] days from the death to decide whether to buy the share, and shall tell the personal representatives in writing whether they intend to.
The deceased owner's family [may / may not] continue to occupy any defined area during that period.

Do not leave death to intestacy. With tenants in common, a share does not automatically pass to the surviving owners — it goes into the estate, and whoever inherits it inherits the shared-land problem too, whether or not they ever wanted it. Write the clause, and make sure each owner's will matches it.

7. Capital works and who pays

Type of work	Who decides	Who pays
Work on an owner's own defined area	That owner alone	That owner
Repairs and upkeep of shared areas	All owners (or the majority in clause 8)	All owners, [equally / in proportion to shares]
Major works on shared areas — a new shared well, lane, shed or system	[all owners / a majority of X%]	All owners, [equally / in proportion to shares]
Works required to comply with planning or building regulations	All owners	[the owner responsible / shared]

An owner who pays more than their share towards an agreed capital improvement is credited with that amount [on a sale, out of the proceeds / in the valuation under clause 5 / not at all]. Choose one and write it in.

8. Deadlock: how it breaks

Ordinary decisions are made by [all owners / a simple majority by share / a majority of X%].
Reserved decisions — a sale of the whole, a mortgage, admitting a new owner, major works — need [unanimity / a majority of X%].
If a reserved decision is deadlocked, the owners shall first [meet within 14 days / refer it to a named facilitator].
If it is still deadlocked after [30] days, the owners shall refer the matter to [a mediator agreed between them / independent arbitration / a named chair with a casting vote, rotating between the owners].
The final backstop. If the deadlock continues for more than [number] months, then [the land is offered for sale as a whole and the proceeds divided in proportion to shares / the parties are free to apply to the court / a named person makes the decision]. Having an end point is what makes the earlier steps credible.

9. The clauses that actually get used

Pre-emption, with the criteria for an outside buyer attached. "To whom" is the clause; "first refusal" alone is not.
How value is set, and what it includes. The most litigated line in any co-ownership dispute is the word "value".
Death. A share in land passing through an estate to someone who has never met the others is how one bad inheritance ends a project.
Who pays for capital works. Someone always ends up having paid the most, and it always comes up on exit.
The deadlock backstop. An agreement with no end point gives the most stubborn owner a permanent veto — which is either what you want or a trap, and either way it should be a decision rather than an accident.

10. What this option costs in tax

This is the cheapest structure to create and, for unrelated people, the most expensive one to fund. Two taxes land at once, and they apply to gifts, not just sales.

Stamp duty: non-residential property — which includes farmland — is charged at 7.5% of value, on sale or by gift. (Department of Finance, agricultural tax)
Consanguinity relief cuts that to 1%, but only between close relations — children, parents, siblings, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews — and not friends or unrelated co-owners. (A transfer between spouses is separately exempt from stamp duty altogether, s.96 SDCA 1999, so this relief matters mainly for blood relatives.) The relief as it stands runs only to 31 December 2028. The land must be farmed for six years afterwards, and the person receiving it must hold an agricultural qualification or farm at least half their working time. (Revenue, consanguinity relief) (Revenue, consanguinity relief)
Gift tax (CAT) is 33% above a lifetime threshold that depends on the relationship: €400,000 from a parent, €40,000 from a sibling, niece, nephew or grandchild, and €20,000 from anyone else — including friends. (CAT rates and thresholds) (Citizens Information, CAT)

A worked example of gifting a €60,000 site to a friend comes to roughly €17,700 in tax — about 29.5%. That arithmetic is the reason unrelated groups usually end up using long leases instead, under a site lease, where the freehold never moves.

Three things people get wrong:

A €1 transfer is still taxed on market value. Revenue wants a valuation, and the tax follows the value, not the price written on the deed.
Agricultural relief is conditional. It can reduce gift tax on qualifying agricultural property by 90%, but only if the beneficiary passes the farmer tests — and land taken out of farming for housing does not qualify. (CAT agricultural relief)
Reliefs have clawbacks. The six-year farming conditions mean the relief is withdrawn if the land stops being farmed.

11. Signature

Signed by each owner: [name] — Date: [ ]

Schedules attached: [map of defined areas / agreed plan / criteria for an outside buyer]

Sign it before the first foundation, not after the first argument. Every co-ownership dispute that reaches a solicitor has the same sentence in it: "we were all agreed at the start." A signed agreement turns that sentence into a paragraph, and the paragraph is much cheaper than the argument.

Not legal or tax advice. The rates and thresholds here are the published ones at the time of writing and they change. Take the drafting to a solicitor and the tax position to an accountant before any transfer, and get the answer in writing.

Free to copy, adapt and pass on.