DOCTRINE OF PROPRIETARY ESTOPPEL

Doctrine of proprietary estoppels

Doctrine of proprietary estoppels

“The contribution that “the equitable Doctrine of proprietary estoppels makes to modern land law”

The positive contribution of proprietary estoppels in Land law includes the fact that the doctrine of proprietary estoppel will grant an equitable interest to a person who has been induced to suffer detriment in reliance on a representation that she would acquire some rights in the property as a result.7 Proprietary estoppel is a remedial doctrine whereby the court may award any one of a number of rights ranging from the entire freehold through to merely equitable compensation in money The treatment of the family home is clearly of enormous sociological, political, economic, spiritual and psychological importance.

On the negative side when considering family law, what will emerge is that the family courts identify the welfare of children as being the paramount consideration, which causes problems when stacked up against the overriding concern of the law of trusts to protect the property rights of the person who paid for the home15 - usually not a child. In considering human rights, we encounter yet another legal paradigm which asserts both a right to property and a right to a family life simultaneously. In addition to that the right to occupy the home is an issue about which everyone has opinions, whether a lawyer or not. With the regular diet of soap operas, kitchen sink dramas and tabloid sensations which occupy our popular culture, we are all aware of the sorts of issues which accompany battles for rights in the home, whether by relationship breakdown, death, birth or otherwise.

The most common set of circumstances which arises in the cases is that of a couple who have occupied a home and run through the gamut of human experiences: children, ...