Keeping Up with the Jones Case: Establishing Constructive Trusts in ‘Sole Legal Owner’ Scenarios

Abstract

This paper considers the influence of the Supreme Court decision in Jones v Kernott on subsequent cases. It focuses on situations with which Jones was not directly concerned, namely where there is only one legal owner of a home and a non-legal-owning cohabitant seeks to establish that he has an equitable interest in it under a common intention constructive trust. The paper argues that while judges have mostly accepted that Jones is relevant to such sole-owner cases, they have had few opportunities (and taken fewer) to move beyond the restrictive approach of Lloyds Bank v Rosset and allow novel outcomes in the light of Jones as yet. It is contended that this state of affairs could ultimately produce a conservative approach that is undesirable for cohabitants who make indirect or non-financial contributions to shared lives and remain without statutory property and financial provision on relationship breakdown.

Note: The paper has been removed in accordance with the journal's policy and is available at the Journal website.

Keywords: Jones, Cohabitants, Kernott, Trusts, Family Homes, Judicial Reasoning, Homemaking, Domestic Relationships, Family Property

JEL Classification: K11, K36