Trusts arising with respect to a passive joint owner: Wodzicki v Wodzicki [2017] EWCA Civ 95

Rachel Waller Associate Fisher Meredith Solicitors

In Wodzicki v Wodzicki [2017] EWCA Civ 95 the trial judge held that the claimant held the legal title of a property on trust with the respondent having a life interest with any other interest to be determined after an accounting process.

The appellant lived in a property purchased in the joint names of her father and his second wife the respondent. The appellant agreed with her father and the respondent that she should have life interest in the property and her father had promised to transfer the legal title when a purchase loan had been paid off. However the respondent had no knowledge of that promise.

The appellant had lived in and maintained the property for many years without any contribution to the upkeep of the home from either her father or the respondent. Her father visited her at the property occasionally but the respondent never. When her father died the respondent sought to grant the appellant ownership of the property for an agreement that the appellant would relinquish any further claim over her father’s estate. On failing to obtain an agreement the respondent...

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