Land Law
Description
To answer a problem question being:
Harriet De Courtney (age 70) lives at Washbrook Farm, Surrey. The farm consists of a dairy herd,
fields and a large farmhouse with 4 bedrooms all registered at HM Land Registry under one title.
Harriet runs the farm as a dairy milk business. Sadly, her husband died last year leaving her with
one adult son, Freddie De Courtney. Freddie is married to Eliza and they have a child, Geraldine
(age 17).
Just after her husband’s death In January 2020, Harriet realised that her son and his wife were
struggling financially and needed a home. Harriet owned the farmhouse outright, free of all debts.
Without taking any legal advice and because Harriet thought it might minimise the tax liability if
she died, Harriet decided to convey the entire legal title to Eliza, Freddie and herself. The mutual
understanding was that the farmhouse would continue to provide a home for Harriet until her
death, but that Freddie, Eliza and their child Geraldine would have an interest in the property, and
could live there with her and help her run the dairy business.
The family never completed a trust deed and the TR1 transfer document was unintentionally left
blank in this regard. The farm, including the farmhouse, is now worth £1m.
Geraldine turned 18 in January 2021 and since then has found she enjoys gambling very much. In
April she got into a little difficulty paying her debts after a particularly difficult poker game. She
went to HSPC bank and offered her share of the farmhouse up as security for a mortgage, forging
the signatures of the other three. The bank granted a £100,000 mortgage over the farmhouse.
Unfortunately, she gambled most of this away over the next few months.
In May Freddie and Eliza fell out over Geraldine’s continued gambling and Freddie feels unable to
live with the family anymore. He moved out, saying he wanted some money as he wants to travel
the world before he’s too old. The family had a discussion about this but they could not reach any
agreement about what should be done or how they would release the money.
It is now three months later and Eliza has been having an affair with a teacher at Geraldine’s
college. She wants to divorce Freddie. She fills out a divorce petition and notes on it that she
intends to sever the joint tenancy upon their divorce being finalised to get her share of the
property. She tracks Freddie down at a hotel in the local town and sends him the divorce petition
by post, hoping it will reach him before he moves on. It arrives at the hotel the day after he left.
Last week Harriet was mowing the lawn on her ride on mower. She felt very angry with Freddie
about him leaving and burst into tears with the stress of it all. She lost control of the mower and
ran Freddie over as he was coming up the driveway to visit her. He died later that day of his
injuries. He made a will a month ago, and it said “I leave everything I own in this world to my only
child Geraldine”.
Eliza is now threatening to sell the farm and farmhouse, as she wants to move in with her
boyfriend.
Advise Harriet
(a) how the family hold the property in equity,
(b) the likely shares they each have, and
(c) whether she can prevent a sale under TOLATA 1996.
Also, the intro and conclusion should only be brief focus on the main points/the body and use the files I have attached and include the applicable areas/points. Also, include uk case law and statute where applicable.
