Land & Property Ownership
In English law, all property has two titles: ‘legal title’ and ‘beneficial title’. The legal title is often called the ‘paper title’ – i.e. whose name appears on the title deeds.
But it is the beneficial title which is the important thing. It is the beneficial title which decides who owns the property.
And the beneficial title will be decided by who has contributed what to the acquisition and improvement of the property. So Mr and Mrs Smith may be the legal owners of their house, but the beneficial ownership may be Mr Smith, Mrs Smith and their aunt Mrs Jones who put up the deposit for the property.
Most disputes regarding property ownership fall within divorce law. Outside of divorce law disputes as to property ownership fall into the following categories:
- Co-habitee cases: where two people who are not married fall out, there is often a dispute as to in what shares their property should be divided.
- Resulting trust cases: where A puts a sum of money into a property which is bought in B’s name. The dispute will usually be whether A should just be entitled to his money back, or entitled to a % of the net value of the property.
- Constructive trust cases: where A puts both money, work and materials into a property again bought in B’s name. The dispute will usually turn on what the nature of the agreement between A and B was (why was A doing this work and what did it amount to?) and the value of the work done.
In all these cases the atmosphere in which the dispute is conducted has the potential to become bitter. This is hardly surprising: the people involved know each other well and have fallen out over money.
Where there are children involved, and the parties are unmarried, I would probably recommend the client go to a divorce or family lawyer. This is because where really what is in dispute is the former family home then considerations other than strict property law considerations ought to decide the issue.
Outside of the divorce-type situation, the case will turn on:
- The reason why the parties bought the property in the first place.
- nature of any agreement between the parties.
- The respective contributions of the parties.
- The nature of any work carried out to the property and who paid for this work.
- The nature of any loans/debts registered against the property.
These cases require an open and collaborative approach to the other side. An aggressive, point-scoring attitude will be counter-productive. My approach is to get a history of the dispute, draw up a draft agreement, and then meet with the other side to try and negotiate a settlement.
If you are in a dispute over the co-ownership of property, by all means, call for advice.