Daisy Minns Shearer and Emma Williams review the remedies currently available for cohabitants and recommendations for reform Reflecting on the efforts that have been made to reform this area can be frustrating, but when cohabitants’ rights on separation or death have been reviewed over the last 20 years, similar principles have emerged. Campaigners have been …
Continue reading "Cohabitation: No further forward"
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Mark Pawlowski highlights some far-reaching implications arising out of the case law on beneficial ownership ‘The size of the parties’ respective shares upon acquisition will be determined according to the terms of their express trust regardless of their actual contributions to the purchase of the property.’ Let us begin with the following example. Suppose Mr …
Continue reading "Cohabitation: Fair shares in the family home?"
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James Carroll and Shantel Burbridge highlight the disparity in the courts’ approach to cohabitation that precedes marriage or civil partnership, and cohabitants who do not marry or enter into a civil partnership ‘Figures from the Office of National Statistics (July 2016) show that there has been an increase in those who are cohabiting but have …
Continue reading "Cohabitation: Doublespeak"
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Wills & Trusts Law Reports | March 2016 #157This was an appeal against a decision that Ms Curran, the appellant, had not acquired a beneficial interest in property in the sole name of Mr Collins, the respondent. Mr Collins and Ms Curran were in a relationship from about 1978 until 2010. However, she did not move in to live with Mr Collins until 2002, having maintained a close relationship with her own family.
From about 1994 onwards, the couple bred Airedale terriers. Over the course of the relationship, Mr Collins owned three properties in his sole name, referred to as the Bendfont flat, the Feltham house and The Haven. He...
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | March 2016 #157This appeal concerned a dispute over the beneficial ownership of the property whose legal title was at all times held by the appellant alone. At trial, the judge made the following findings:
- (i) A former property had been purchased in the joint names of the respondent and appellant in 1987.
- (ii) In 1991 the legal estate in that property was transferred into the sole name of the appellant to allow her to claim benefits as though she was a single woman living alone. The outstanding mortgage on that property at the time was converted to an endowment secured by a policy...
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | January/February 2015 #146In 2002, the appellant and the respondent set up home together in a house in Droitwich. They remained unmarried. The property was purchased in the appellant’s sole name with his money alone, and he took on sole responsibility for the mortgage. On the breakdown of their relationship, the respondent claimed that the appellant held the property was held by him on constructive trust for both parties in equal shares. That claim failed before His Honour Judge Pearce-Higgins QC, but her alternative proprietary estoppel claim succeeded. The respondent was awarded £28,500 in satisfaction of the e...
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | June 2014 #140The claimant brought a claim for reasonable financial provision under the Inheritance Provision for Family & Dependents Act 1975, against the estate of Alexander Graham Bryce (the deceased), on the basis that she had been living in the same household as the deceased, as his wife, in accordance with s1(A) of the Act. Otherwise, as the deceased had died intestate, his c£600,000 estate fell to be distributed to his numerous intestacy beneficiaries, a class to which the claimant, who was never married to the deceased, did not belong.
The first issue before the court was w...
Amy Harris looks at the Cohabitation Rights Bill and the array of provisions dealing with cohabitation for both cohabitants and spouses ‘While cohabitation is not specifically cited as a factor to be taken into consideration by the courts in relation to the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 1973 it is clear that it is increasingly relevant …
Continue reading "Cohabitation: Time for reform?"
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Margaret Hatwood outlines the court’s approach when a payee under a financial order cohabits ‘On a variation application, the court will look at the financial impact of any cohabitation on the needs of a payee. A cohabitant is expected to pay their way, and if a cohabitant can more than pay their way then this …
Continue reading "Cohabitation: Moving on"
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