A tenant-in-common interest gives an exchanger a direct, undivided fractional ownership stake in real property, recorded on title alongside other co-owners, rather than a beneficial interest in a trust or a partnership unit. That direct title ownership is what makes a TIC interest qualify as 1031 replacement property without needing the special trust structure a DST relies on.
The tradeoff for that direct ownership is co-owner coordination. Major decisions, such as refinancing, a lease that binds the whole property, or a sale, typically require consent from co-owners holding a supermajority of the ownership interests under the co-tenancy agreement, which means a single TIC owner does not have the unilateral control that comes with wholly owning a property.
TIC interests were more common before DST offerings became widely available; today they remain useful for exchangers who specifically want titled real property ownership, want to combine capital with a known group of co-investors, or are consolidating existing TIC interests rather than starting fresh.
A DST investor's name does not appear on the deed; the trustee holds title and the investor holds a beneficial interest governed by the trust agreement. A TIC investor's name appears directly on the recorded deed as a co-tenant, with an ownership percentage that becomes part of the public record.
That direct title carries a benefit and a burden. The benefit is that a TIC owner is treated unambiguously as owning real property, with fewer questions about whether the interest qualifies as like-kind. The burden is that a TIC owner is also personally exposed to whatever liabilities attach to that property, including personal liability on any recourse debt the co-tenancy agreement assigns to individual owners rather than the group.
Confirm exactly how debt is structured in the co-tenancy agreement: some TIC arrangements use a single blanket loan with each co-owner signing individually, which creates cross-liability among owners that a DST's trust-level, non-recourse financing avoids.
Co-tenancy agreements typically require unanimous or near-unanimous consent for major actions such as selling the property, refinancing, or signing a new master lease, while allowing day-to-day management decisions to proceed under a designated manager without a full vote. Read the specific consent thresholds in the agreement rather than assuming standard terms.
A single dissenting co-owner holding even a small percentage can block a sale or refinancing if the agreement requires unanimous consent, which has produced real disputes in TIC properties where one owner's circumstances, such as a need for immediate liquidity, conflict with the group's preference to continue holding.
Ask how many co-owners are in the specific TIC being considered and what percentage each holds, since a two-owner TIC behaves very differently from a fifteen-owner TIC when it comes to reaching consent on a contested decision.
Lenders willing to finance TIC properties are less common than conventional commercial lenders, and many require every co-owner to qualify individually and sign the loan documents, with cross-default provisions that can put one owner's interest at risk from another owner's default. Confirm the specific lender's terms before committing capital.
Some TIC sponsors arrange financing similarly to a DST, with a pre-negotiated loan already in place before interests are sold, which reduces the individual qualification burden but still typically requires each TIC owner to sign the note. Understand whether the debt is recourse to individual owners or limited to the property itself.
Selling an individual TIC interest to a third party, separate from a sale of the whole property, is legally possible but practically difficult, since buyers for a fractional interest in someone else's co-ownership arrangement are scarce and the co-tenancy agreement may restrict transfers or grant other co-owners a right of first refusal.
The more common exit is a coordinated sale of the entire property with all co-owners participating, often itself structured as a further 1031 exchange for owners who want to continue deferring gain. Confirm the co-tenancy agreement's provisions for a coordinated exchange, including how proceeds and identification responsibilities are divided among departing co-owners.
Keep the recorded deed showing the exchanger's percentage ownership, the co-tenancy agreement, the loan documents if debt is involved, and the property management agreement designating who handles day-to-day operations. These establish both the exchanger's qualifying interest and the operational terms governing the ownership going forward.
Form 8824 reports the exchanger's proportional share of the replacement property's value and debt based on their TIC percentage, and the qualified intermediary's closing statement should reflect that percentage precisely to support the boot calculation.