ABSTRACT
Ownership of the family home This topic is considered under two headings – firstly, where the legal estate is in the name of one party, and secondly, where there are joint legal owners.
In the House of Lords case, Stack v Dowden [2007], Baroness Hale made it clear that when there is no declaration of the parties’ beneficial interest in the family home, then ‘Equity follows the law’. Therefore, in a sole legal owner case, such as that in the problem above, there is a presumption that Tom is both the legal and beneficial owner of the cottage. Jane will have the burden of rebutting that presumption and will have two hurdles to cross as illustrated in the following diagram.
