Trust and trustees Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Trust and trustees - Essay Example The assumption that many have is that they are protected under the legal framework of â€Å"common law marriage.† Tina and Luke can exemplify this fact since they lived for several years and upon breakdown of the relationship, Luke was in a fix upon the sale of the house since Tina didn’t consider him or the contribution he had made towards the renovation of the place they both considered home. This paper will try to give an in-depth analysis of this case study by exploring the current law that governs relationship breakdown for cohabitees, the rights that Luke has on Tina’s flat and how he can get his share of the property back. ‘A patchwork of legal rules’ are entailed in the legal rights available to cohabitants upon relationship breakdown.2 This is because the procedure of reclaiming a right over a property in a cohabiting situation is complex, expensive and uncertain to rely on and not applicable to family circumstances.3 This can be highlighted by the disparity that exists with the relief available to married couples under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 (MCA)4, which enables the court to deal with the entirety of a couple’s assets and provide for complete discretion when making orders, with the courts ‘largely left to get on with it for themselves.’.5 In Luke and Tina’s situation, the property under contention was registered at the Land Registry in Tina’s sole name. In sole ownership cases, the difficulty arises for the non-legal owner who must traverse their way through strict property law and complex equitable principles under the Trust of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996, which is supposed to establish an equitable interest in the property.6 There are also complications that arise in regard to joint ownership cases and this precedence has been hugely used to determine the cases of cohabitee. The