England and Wales Land Registry Adjudicator

Harun Miah v Mahmudual Haque Shafi (Beneficial interests, trusts and restrictions : Express agreement) [2017] UKFTT 677 (PC) (25 August 2017)

Neutral Citation Number: [2017] UKFTT 677 (PC) Claim by A to a beneficial interest in a property bought as an investment at auction in A's absence and paid for initially with R's own borrowed funds. A and R had attended auctions together before and A's evidence was that they had agreed to go into business together, buying and letting out houses. Two months after completion, A transferred to R's account money borrowed from the bank and from relatives and friends amounting to exactly half the total of the purchase price and costs. The property was let out. There was a chain of texts from A complaining that he had not received his share of the rent, which produced some payments from R. In the proceedings R claimed that A had lent the money to R without R having asked for the money. Held that there was an express agreement that the property would be held for A and R in equal shares. I accepted A's evidence that R had told him that it was only a technicality that legal title was in his name. A's claim succeeded. There had been video evidence in the form of an exert from the tv programme "Under the Hammer", showing A and R at an auction and raising their arms together to bid for a property.

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