Former England cricketer and well-known “plain speaker” Geoffrey Boycott has lost a  High Court case against a firm of solicitors who he claimed had given him bad advice when he and his former business partner and lover, Anne Wyatt, purchased a property in exclusive Sandbanks, Dorset, together for £450,000 in 1996. 

It seems that the house was bought as “joint tenants” – which means that the parties own the property jointly and when the first dies, the property automatically passes to the survivor by a process called “survivorship”, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the first deceased’s Will.  However, Mrs Wyatt appears to have, at some point during her life, severed the joint tenancy which converted the way the house was held to “tenants in common” – both parties own specific shares, equal or unequal, and on death the deceased’s share passes into their estate and is dealt with under their Will. 

A joint tenancy can be severed by one party serving a notice of severance on the other at their last known home or business address under the Law of Property Act 1925 – the notice does not have to be acknowledged as being received (although of course that would be good practice), and the other party cannot prevent the severance.  Mr Boycott was very surprised to discover this and had apparently not realised that co-ownership could be changed in this way.

On Mrs Wyatt’s death in 2009, her share of the property (the house now being worth about £2.5 million) passed under her Will to her niece and not to Mr Boycott by survivorship as he had expected would happen.  He therefore sued the Poole firm of solicitors Perrins Guy Williams for professional negligence and damages, stating that they did not explain to him that Mrs Wyatt could sever the joint tenancy and if he had known he might not end up owning the whole house, he would not have gone ahead with the purchase.  The solicitors denied all liability and in fact, Mr Justice Vos decided that the case had been left too long before it was brought to court (Mr Boycott was aware of the problem in 2007).  Mr Boycott now faces likely legal costs of more than £100,000.

Holding a property as tenants in common can be useful, but you do need to speak to your legal adviser, for example when purchasing the property, if facing a breakdown in your relationship or if a change needs to be made when you are dealing with your Will, to be sure of what you are doing. 

Rebecca Haywood

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