Andrew A sold a 25% share in his 2010 Fairline Phantom 48 based in Cala D'Or, Mallorca, Spain a couple of months ago as a result of an ad posted on yours2share. The current boat share ads are here.

Template contracts for sharing arrangements

There are three fundamental mechanisms for sharing all assets:

• Joint ownership by all parties (co-ownership, shared ownership, partial ownership or fractional ownership)
• One party owns and the other(s) pay for use or occupation through a licence, lease or hire agreement
• Shared use, where no money changes hands, as both sides benefit in other ways.

Joint or fractional ownership enables a small group of people to get together and buy a valuable asset such as property, boat, mobile home or aircraft. Usually there are between two and twelve partners: three, four, five and six partners are most common.

The advantages are obvious: great value for money, better for the environment, shared responsibility, and the enjoyment of being part of a group of people that loves the boats, car, villa as much as you do. What bothers people most is the fear of falling out with your partners. This usually happens when one sharer wants to do something different to the others, and it is exacerbated, if they actually go ahead and do this.

Margaret Flatman from Norwich in Norfolk sold her 1/5th share in a Hunter Legend 340 based in Nidri, Lefkas, Greece to Peter Dow from Topsham, near Exeter in Devon. The share was advertised in October 2008 and was sold the following month. The current boat share ads are here.

This detailed article covers many issues relating to fractional ownership of property or real estate. Although some aspects are very specific to the USA, particularly the sections on finance and taxation, it gives an excellent all round view of fractional ownership and the issues you need to consider.  Here are the current fractional property or real estate listings.

If you lose money as a result of attempting to set up or entering into a sharing agreement or syndicate, yours2share has no liability for your costs. yours2share is simply the "matchmaker".

You need to see the sharer's proof of ownership of the asset and clear evidence of genuine full title to the asset so that you know about any outstanding loans secured against the asset.

Fractional ownership (joint ownership, shared ownership, co-ownership, group ownership, multiple ownership, interval ownership, asset sharing partial ownership or part ownership, to name but some of its many terms!) of property or real estate is a well established idea, which is also now often called collaborative consumption.

Here are the listings of boats, aircraft and properties available to share.