Island Life Magazine Ltd February/March 2011 | Page 30

property

Island Life - February/March 2011

LEGAL ISSUES
Interests
Arising Under
Co-Ownership
Photo: Mark & Terence Willey

Terence Willey & Company., Lawyers and Commissioners for Oaths (incorporating Malcolm
Daniells & Company and The Bembridge Law Practice) Contact Terence Willey 01983 875859
or Mark Willey 01983 611888. www.terencewilley.co.uk

When property is purchased in joint names

other than to the surviving Beneficial Joint

there are two distinct interests that arise

owner. In more recent years there has been

being legal and equitable. By definition:- one

an increased rate in the level of divorce

being in respect of legal ownership to the

and it has become far more common for

title of the property and the other being that

property to be purchased by individuals who

of financial entitlement.

are not married or who have been married

In my early days of conveyancing, now

before. Such difficulties were recognised

stretching back over forty years, lawyers

by the Court of Appeal recently when it

acting on a purchase for a husband and wife

was stated …'the purchase of residential

presumed that when
instructed to proceed
in joint names it was to
be under the definition
of what is known as
Beneficial Joint Tenants
effectively meaning
that upon the death of
either one, the legal and
equitable interest in the
property would pass to
the survivor absolutely.
The survivor would
take what is known as
a beneficial interest
in the entirety of the
property under the trust
for sale created by the
Conveyance, which in
most cases was entirely
appropriate. Such trust
for sale so incorporated
in the Conveyance would
override any provision in
a Will where there was
an intention to leave a
share in the property
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