Ownership of the family home – what role the resulting trust?

Mark Pawlowski Barrister and Professor Emeritus of Property Law School of Law University of Greenwich

The presumption of equality in joint ownership cases is based on the premise that the parties make a deliberate choice to put the family home into joint names with a clear and informed understanding of the legal consequences of doing so.  The reality however may be very different in so far as the parties may not always be given proper legal advice before embarking on a joint purchase of the home.  The result it is suggested may operate unfairly on the party who has contributed significantly more to the purchase price at the time of acquisition. This potential unfairness may be compounded if the other party subsequently pays for an improvement to the property which enlarges his/her share substantially beyond the joint share notionally ascribed to the parties on joint acquisition. In terms of the continuing role of the resulting trust this now plays a limited function where there is a commercial context to the purchase of the home or where there is a lack of close...

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