Occupation rights of joint owners of land

The recent Court of Appeal decision in CIR v Eversden (2003 STC 822) has focused attention on the occupation rights of joint owners of land, particularly land in the form of a dwelling house. The question in the Eversden case arose in relation to the issue of whether a house owner who disposed of a joint interest while herself retaining a relatively small joint interest had made a gift which was within the IHT reservation of benefit provisions. The tax consequences of creating or gifting joint interests in land, and the taxation of them, will to a great extent depend upon the legal rights, and liabilities attached to the joint interest. Cases which establish and explain these rights and liabilities, when the Courts adjudicate on disputes between joint owners, are therefore of interest to tax advisers as well as property lawyers. Re Byford deceased (the Times 13 March 2003).

The deceased and his wife had bought a house jointly in 1986. They lived in it together and following the death of the deceased in December 2000, the deceased’s widow continued to live in the property alone. The deceased had, however, been adjudicated bankrupt in 1991. The deceased’s trustee in bankruptcy, in whom his beneficial interest in the property had vested, sought an order for sale of the property.