Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Severance Supplemental Notes - Coggle Diagram
Severance Supplemental Notes
Kinch v Bullard [1998] 4 All ER 650
A married couple, Mr and Mrs Johnson were the beneficial joint tenants of their matrimonial home
Mrs Johnson sent her husband a letter by first class post stating her intention to sever her interest and so sever the joint tenancy after their marriage broke down
She tried to destroy the letter after realizing Mr. Johnson was ill. He died a few months after...was the joint tenancy severd?
Courts held: The tenancy had been effectively severed by the delivery of the letter and notice that the tenant intended to sever their interest as provided for by s36(2) Law of Property Act 1925.
Under s196 Law of Property Act 1925 a notice was properly served it is left at the last known place of abode or business
Therefore, the notice of severance was effective from when the letter fell through the letterbox; it was irrelevant whether the wife destroyed the letter
Mortgage Corporation v Shaire [2001]: Conditions for orders of sale for family homes under TOLATA.
Fox and Shaire held a property as joint tenants in law and as tenants in common in equity, with ownership divided as 25% and 75% respectively,
Fox proceeded to mortgage the property, forging Shaire’s signature, but subsequently defaulted on his mortgage payments
The mortgage was found to be valid only for Fox’s 25% share of the property
the claimants applied to the Court for an order to Shaire to sell the property so as permit the claimant to claim the money owed by Fox, as per the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996, s. 14. Could the sale be enforced?
Court held: the relevant factors to be considered prior to a sale order under s. 15 of TOLATA had altered; there was no presumption that such a sale ought be ordered to permit the judiciary greater discretion in reaching a fair and equitable conclusion
Thus, instead of ordering sale, the defendant was ordered to assume Fox’s repayment obligations.
Section 421 of the Insolvency Act 1986 States:
(a) an insolvency administration order has been made in respect of the insolvent estate of a deceased person,
(b) the petition for the order was presented after the commencement of this section and within the period of five years beginning with the day on which he died, and
(c) immediately before his death he was beneficially entitled to an interest in any property as joint tenant.’
This means: Subsection 2 states that the court can make an order under this section requiring the surviving joint owner to pay the trustee in bankruptcy BUT the court has discretion to consider other interests before making the order