Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Cohabitee claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975: capital awards possible—outright home transfer as maintenance in Thompson v Ragget (EWHC, England and Wales)

Published on: 30 April 2018

Published by a LexisNexis Private Client expert

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Article summary

Thompson v Ragget and others [2018] EWHC 688 (Ch), [2018] All ER (D) 18 (Apr)

What are the practical implications of this case?

If an unmarried couple have no wills and one dies, the survivor has no statutory entitlement to inherit under the intestacy rules. Nevertheless, as the claimant did, a surviving cohabitee may bring a court claim for financial provision if they lived together for two years, or if they were a dependant immediately before the deceased’s death. A central consideration in such claims, as here, is whether accommodation should be provided through a life interest rather than by transferring capital outright. In the widely reported case Ilott v The Blue Cross and others [2017] UKSC 17, [2017] All ER (D) 96 (Mar), Lord Hughes emphasised that the statutory power is to meet maintenance, not to grant capital; where housing forms part of maintenance, it is more likely to be secured by a life interest than by a capital award. However, in this case HH Judge Jarman QC accepted that granting a life interest, instead of conveying the property outright, was not...

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