TOLATA & Family Property Disputes
Resolving disputes over family money in English property, under TOLATA and the law of trusts.
When family money goes into English property — a parent in Shanghai funding a London flat held in a relative's name, a contribution to a couple's home that was never written down — disputes turn on whether that money was a gift, a loan or a beneficial investment. These claims are decided under the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 (TOLATA) and the law of resulting and constructive trusts. We act for funders, owners and spouses, with Chinese-language evidence — WeChat records, overseas transfers — handled in-house.
Typical disputes we act in
Two patterns recur. In the first, a property in England is bought during a marriage or relationship, but the deposit — sometimes the entire purchase price — comes from parents in mainland China, Hong Kong or elsewhere, and is placed in the name of one spouse, a relative, or held informally for the wider family. In the second, parents or grandparents have funded a couple's home, school fees or living costs over a period of years, and on divorce the question becomes what that pattern of funding means for the family's resources, and whether the contributing parents have their own claim to a share of the property they funded (see our note, When family money meets family law: cross-border divorce in UK Chinese families). Where a beneficial interest is asserted, the court quantifies it according to what the parties actually intended when the money moved. These disputes frequently run alongside financial-remedy proceedings on divorce, since the property in question is often also an asset the divorcing spouses are arguing over. The same trust principles apply where the couple was never married — see Cohabitation & Unmarried Families.
How the court decides
TOLATA claims are brought under the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996, which governs disputes over land held in trust, including determining beneficial ownership and resolving disagreements between trustees and beneficiaries. Where there is no express declaration of trust, the court applies the doctrines of resulting trust and common-intention constructive trust: what the parties intended when the money was provided, what the recipient understood, and what the parties' later conduct shows. Contribution evidence is central — bank transfer records and contemporaneous WeChat messages carry far more weight than evidence reconstructed years after the event. Where a TOLATA claim runs alongside divorce proceedings, the two are case-managed together so that the property issues are resolved consistently.
Our experience
- TOLATA claim over a central London property held in a relative's name but funded from mainland China, turning on resulting and constructive trusts and WeChat evidence.
The firm also takes on selected cross-border family-wealth matters more broadly — typically disputes over whether family money from China put into English property was a gift, a loan or a beneficial investment.
Who leads this work
This work is led by Jackson Ng MCIArb, Partner & Barrister at Duan & Duan UK LLP, who also leads asset tracing and recovery work within our Dispute Resolution practice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a parental contribution to a property purchase treated as a gift or a loan?
It depends on the evidence of what was intended at the time the money moved. Without contemporaneous documentation, the English court may treat a contribution as a gift. Where a loan, a beneficial interest, or a recoverable contribution was intended, that intention needs to be demonstrated through evidence the court will accept — bank transfer records, WeChat messages, and witness evidence from the contributing parents all help, and are far easier to gather at the time than years later.
Can I claim a share in a property that is registered in someone else's name?
Yes, in the right circumstances. Under the law of resulting and constructive trusts, a person who has contributed to the purchase of a property may be able to establish that the legal owner holds some share of it on trust for them, even though their name is not on the title. A claim of this kind is brought under the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 (TOLATA).
Does TOLATA apply alongside a divorce?
Yes. A TOLATA claim by a third party — typically a contributing parent — is legally distinct from the divorce itself, but the two sets of proceedings frequently run alongside each other and are case-managed together, since the property in dispute may also be an asset the divorcing spouses are arguing over in the financial-remedy proceedings.