ABSTRACT
Checklist 4 In this chapter, the various issues relating to co-ownership will be considered in turn and the student needs to have an understanding of the following issues. First, there is the question of the statutory machinery and the reasons for the 1925 reforms. This must be addressed in the light of the legislative changes made by the TOLATA 1996 and the reasons for them. Without this background understanding, much of the law of co-ownership will make no sense. Second, there is the question of the actual share that each co-owner really has in co-owned land: problems of severance and the like. Third, there are important issues as to how implied co-ownership can arise or, in other words, when does single ownership turn into co-ownership without any formal documentation? This is the law of resulting and constructive trusts based on House of Lords’ decisions in Pettitt v Pettitt (1970), Lloyds Bank v Rosset (1989) and, most importantly, Stack v Dowden (2007). Fourth, there are issues about the consequences for purchasers when buying land subject to co-ownership, especially if that co-ownership has been informally created. In this context, ‘purchasers’ means mortgagees (banks, building societies, etc) who lend money and so ‘purchase’ an interest in the co-owned land as security. In an examination, it is quite common for at least two questions on co-ownership to appear on the examination paper and it is quite possible for one question (usually a problem question) to raise all four matters.
