Ownership and estates
Tenancy in severalty
Sole ownership by one person or one entity
The name misleads almost everyone who meets it: severalty comes from "severed", not from "several". One owner holds the whole estate, severed from all others, and a corporation or a trust owning a building holds it in severalty exactly as an individual does.
Easily confused with
Tenancy in common is what the word makes people reach for, and it is the opposite: two or more owners holding undivided interests with no survivorship.
How the exam asks about it
Expect it as the odd one out in a list of co-ownership forms. Joint tenancy, tenancy in common and tenancy by the entirety all take two or more owners; severalty takes exactly one.
Quick check: Tenancy in severalty
One question. Pick an answer to see the explanation.
Which term is being defined: “Sole ownership by one person or one entity”?
Related terms
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