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Land | Beneficial ownership
Chancery Division
12 May 2017
Judge Paul Matthews, sitting as a High Court judge
[2017] EWHC 1080 (Ch)
[2017] PLSCS 108
Land - Beneficial ownership - Declaration of trust - Claimant and defendant purchasing land in joint names - Transfer document showing land held by parties as joint tenants - Claimant and defendant not signing Land Registry form - Claimant severing joint tenancy - Issue arising as to beneficial ownership of land - Whether declaration of trust in transfer document being valid - Judgment in favour of defendants
The claimant wished to purchase a small hotel and campsite known as the Innis Inn and Campsite in St Austell, Cornwall for £500,000. He persuaded the first defendant to contribute £100,000 to the purchase price in return for an interest in one half of the property and a job on the campsite. The claimant retained solicitors to deal with the conveyancing who were instructed to complete the relevant Land Registry form to show that the claimant and the defendant would hold the property on trust for themselves as joint tenants. The claimant and first defendant did not sign the executed version of the form but the vendors did.
The parties ran the business as a partnership, together with the first defendant's wife (the second defendant) until the claimant gave a signed document...