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Private client: Careful planning

Private client: Careful planning

Pawlowski, Mark ORCID: 0000-0002-5473-5809 (2016) Private client: Careful planning. Family Law Journal, 159. pp. 16-18. ISSN 1472-4944

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Abstract

The article highlights some of the pitfalls associated with mutual wills, including the necessity for a written contract not to revoke complying with s.2 of the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989 if the contract relates to land, what constitutes breach of the contract whilst the parties are still living and breach of the constructive trust if the survivor revokes their mutual will once one of the parties has died, and whether the doctrine of mutual wills automatically severs a joint tenancy of the family home. A number of safeguards are suggested to minimise these difficulties, but the overall conclusion is that there are other mechanisms which provide for far greater flexibility for the devolution of property on death, including the use of some form of trust, the creation of joint life interests with remainder to the ultimate beneficiary or identical or mirror wills where there is no contract not to revoke.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Mutual wills; land; written contract; breach of contract; survivor; constructive trust breach of trust; joint tenancy
Subjects: K Law > KD England and Wales
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group: Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences > School of Law & Criminology (LAC)
Related URLs:
Last Modified: 21 Feb 2018 11:07
URI: http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/15724

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