ABSTRACT
The doctrine of proprietary estoppel was considered in detail in Chapter 8 above: this section will consider the application of those concepts to trusts of homes. The nature of the remedy is at the discretion of the court. The decision of the Court of Appeal in Pascoe v Turner (1979) is illustrative of the breadth of the remedy potentially available under a proprietary estoppel claim. The plaintiff and the defendant cohabited in a property which was registered in the name of the plaintiff alone. The plaintiff often told the defendant that the property and its contents were hers – however, the property was never conveyed to her. In reliance on these representations, the defendant spent money on re-decoration and repairs to the property. While the amounts were not large, they constituted a large proportion of the defendant’s savings. The defendant sought to assert rights under proprietary estoppel when the plaintiff sought an order to remove the defendant from the property.
