The High Court has declared that a divorced couple each hold a 50% interest as tenants in common in five properties listed in their settlement terms. The ruling resolves how those terms affect ownership; the court listed costs and final orders for a later date.
The judgment by Ms Justice Hyland, delivered on 19 July 2024, followed an application by the husband for a declaration about the properties. The parties, identified only as G, had settled their divorce proceedings in January 2023. Their agreement said each was entitled to a 50% interest in the listed properties. The husband argued that this wording severed their previous joint tenancy. The wife argued that they remained joint tenants, retaining the right of survivorship.
The judge applied the ordinary contractual approach to interpreting the settlement, considering its wording and context. She found that “each entitled” and “a 50% interest” indicated separate, identifiable shares. She also considered the agreement’s treatment of furniture and other assets, its reference to equal shares in company holdings, and its provision for finality subject to reconciliation exercises. In her view, those terms supported an agreed division of interests, even though the distribution of individual assets remained to be worked out.
The wife had argued that the agreement did not expressly provide for severance and that later negotiations were intended to settle the assets’ division. She also raised concerns about survivorship, her home, tax and probate consequences. The judge treated those points as submissions and affidavit evidence, but said the parties’ subjective understanding could not determine the objective meaning of the written agreement. She rejected the argument that the statutory provisions cited by the wife prevented the settlement from changing how the properties were held.
The court granted the requested declaration: each party holds a 50% interest as tenants in common in the properties at paragraphs 2(i) to (v) of the January 2023 terms. The judgment did not make a separate order for sale or distribution of the properties. Costs and final orders were listed for 30 July 2024, with liberty for the parties to seek another date.