Geoffrey Boycott, the cricketer turned broadcaster has begun a £1.25m High Court battle. He is suing lawyers for compensation over a house he owned with Anne Wyatt.
In 1996 they bought a house overlooking Poole Harbour in the millionaires’ resort of Sandbanks, Dorset. Mrs Wyatt was said to be Mr Boycott’s “friend and confidante”. They had met in 1960 and were linked romantically for decades even though Mrs Wyatt was sixteen years his senior.
Mr Boycott told the court he allowed Mrs Wyatt to live in the house rent free during her lifetime, but when she died in 2009 to his “huge surprise”, he discovered that her half of the house had gone to her heir rather than to him. The house, bought for £450,000 is currently on the market for £2.5m.
It turns out that after Mrs Wyatt was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, she changed the manner in which she and Mr Boycott held the property from “joint tenants” to “tenants in common”. Mr Boycott claims that he had never been advised that Mrs Wyatt could sever the tenancy in such a way and said “if I had known either one of us could do that, I would not have gone ahead”. The two law firms in question deny liability. Mr Justice Vos hearing the case apologised for the “obscurity” of Property Law which dates back three hundred years: “life is difficult sometimes and that is why unfortunately you have had to come to court”.
If a couple own a property as “joint tenants”, this means that when one of them dies, their share of the property automatically passes to the other. Most husbands and wives hold properties in this way.
Alternatively you can hold property as “tenants in common”. This allows a couple to own unequal shares in a property and also to leave that share to whomever they wish in their Will.
To change a joint tenancy to a tenancy in common merely requires one person to send a Notice of Severance to the other. It can be done unilaterally without the consent of both parties.
In Mr Boycott’s case his understanding of the law may come too late. The couple had met in 1960 and their relationship was already drawing to a close in 1996 when they bought the property together. The pair led separate lives. In 2002 Mr Boycott was diagnosed with throat cancer but later received the all-clear.
If you would like to consider the way in which you hold jointly owned property and check that your expectations of how the law works is right, we can help. When drawing up a Will for you, our Wills and Probate Department will discuss with you the manner in which you hold jointly owned property and whether or not severance of the tenancy is a good idea.
Our Conveyancing Department will always give you clear and thorough advice about how you should hold a property when you are jointly purchasing it. Our Family Department can help you with drawing up a Cohabitation Agreement setting out the shares that each of you have in the property, and are also specialists in helping you understand and enforce the law if your relationship comes to an end. In some cases it may be necessary to make an application to court to obtain an order for sale of the property or to determine whether you hold the property in equal or unequal shares. In other cases the Family Department can help negotiate the terms of a Deed of Separation for you.
For more information please contact Beth Woodward, Solicitor in the Family Department on bwoodward@neves-solicitors.co.uk.
