Q: As a real estate attorney, I am concerned when unrelated people, even engaged couples, purchase real estate together. In many cases, I find these clients have not considered the various options for ownership of the property they want to buy.

I tell my clients to choose a limited liability company, corporation, partnership, joint tenancy or tenancy in common. I also find that most do not have a written operating agreement that specifies who pays what, how decisions will be made regarding repairs, how/when money is put into upgrades, who lives in the property or what the rental parameters will be, and who has the power to force a sale. I wonder if other attorneys see the same issues with their real estate clients.

A: Yes, they do. We agree that unmarried co-buyers often don’t understand the choices they have when it comes to thinking through the various ownership options. Sam has provided the same information to his clients through the years, but there is still some confusion about which is the right way to go and what each choice may mean over the short and long term.

At the very basic level, you may decide to own a home as joint tenants with rights of survivorship or as tenants in common. With joint tenants with rights of survivorship, the survivor becomes the owner of the home upon the death of the co-owner. With tenancy in common, upon the death of one owner, that owner’s share would go to their heirs or according to the wishes as set forth in their will. The share will not flow automatically to the co-owner unless specified in writing in a will or other document.

But that only takes care of the issue of when a person dies. More commonly, people break up. Married people start the divorce proceedings, and if they can’t work it out, the judge will ultimately decide how assets get handled.

Sam also commonly sees a situation where friends or family members buy a home or vacation property together. It’s fine, until it’s not. Over the years we have received so many letters about siblings that can’t get along with each other. Friends or partners who decide to buy a big home and live together, until someone has a change in life circumstance, gets a new job or decides they want a ski house instead of a beach house — and then they can’t figure out who paid for what and how to divide the asset.

At a minimum, we would like to see people who buy homes together have a written document that addresses the following:

The amount of money each person is putting down toward the purchase of the home.

Who paid for the expenses, fees and out-of-pocket costs to purchase the home and how those amounts will be reimbursed when the home is sold.

How expenses will be shared going forward.

What happens when one person is unable to keep up with the expenses and the other pitches in to cover those expenses.

Who decides when to sell the home and how the money will get divided.

Who decides or has the final say about improvements and how those improvements get apportioned or repaid to each person.

When the home is sold and there is cash that comes to the owners, how you will split that money.

If there is a death of one of the owners, does the surviving owner have a responsibility to the family of the deceased owner for any of the money that would have been owed to the deceased owner’s family?

These are only some of the questions and issues you need to address when you co-own a home. Of course, when things go well and the owners share equally in all expenses and never have real issues relating to the ownership, there’s no need to worry.

Ilyce Glink is the author of “100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask” (4th Edition). She is also the CEO of Best Money Moves, a financial wellness technology company. Samuel J. Tamkin is a Chicago-based real estate attorney. Contact Ilyce and Sam through her website, ThinkGlink.com.