ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses particular social significance because it concerns the manner in which individuals acquire rights in the family home. The secret to understanding the area of the law is to recognise that the different judges simply have different opinions about the way in which people should be allowed to acquire rights in their homes. The simplest rule in situations where there is no express trust over land is that any person who contributes to the acquisition of property will obtain an equitable interest in that property proportionate to the total interest in the property. The case law following the decision in Gissing offered a scattered reading of the nature of the constructive trust. One of the underlying aims of the changes introduced by Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 was to grant beneficiaries under trusts of land the right to occupy land: for the first time by statute rather than by express trust provision.
