Long division
Q. Thirty years ago my brother and I were in business together and bought two pieces of land, one of two acres and the other of nine. I built a bungalow on the smaller plot and the plan was that my brother would build on two acres of the other plot with us sharing the remaining seven acres. I have now suggested we divide up the land as originally intended, but my brother refuses, saying he intends to keep all nine acres. What’s my position?
A. It depends how the land was bought in the first place. Did your joint business buy it, and was it registered in the name of the business? If you each bought the separate plots in your individual names you may have great difficulty now in getting your brother to part with some land that is registered in his sole name. However if it was bought out of profits from your joint business and you have records to prove it you may be able to argue that, even though the large plot is in your brother’s name, he holds the seven acres upon trust for the two of you. You should apply to the Land Registry for a restriction to be placed on the title in order to protect your interest, and apply to the court for an order confirming that you are entitled to a share of the land.

Don’t bank on it
Q. There’s a small river at the back of my house and those of four neighbours. The river is eroding the bank. We have contacted the council and the river authority but to no avail, and are told it’s a case of “riparian rights”. As leaseholders, are we responsible for carrying out repairs and maintenance on the riverbank, or would the landowner be responsible?
A. People whose houses are adjacent to rivers (riparian landowners) are responsible for repairing the banks on their land. You will have to check your lease documents (or ask a solicitor to check them for you). It’s more than likely that there’s a provision in the lease making you as leaseholder responsible for such repairs and general maintenance to the riverbank.

Manipulating mum
Q. My wife’s mother made a will dividing everything between her children. But recently her son took her to a solicitor’s office to make a new will. We don’t know what has been changed, but we’re obviously slightly suspicious. Is there anything we can do about this?
A. Your wife could discuss this with her mother. It’s possible she would be prepared to discuss the will and her plans for her property, and if necessary she could make yet another will which would cancel out the previous ones. If her capability is in question the children could discuss the situation with her GP and ask for an assessment of her “testamentary capacity” – her mental ability to make a will. As things stand, any questions you have about her mental capacity or whether undue influence was applied in the making of the latest will would only be raised after her death, when the will comes into effect. At that stage it may be very difficult to challenge the validity of the will if it was drawn up by an experienced solicitor.

Losing sleep
Q. My wife was finally forced to sell the former matrimonial home after a three-year battle to get my share of the marital assets from my divorce. We agreed what percentage each of us was to receive, but it took nearly two months, and many sleepless nights, from the sale of the property for my cheque to arrive from my wife’s solicitor. I’m told the delay was the result of a dispute over my wife’s bill, but that was nothing to do with me.
A. Your own solicitor should have ensured that, as a condition of your signing the transfer document, your ex-wife’s solicitor entered into a professional undertaking to pay over your share of the net proceeds as per a completion statement previously approved by you. Had this procedure been followed, your ex-wife’s solicitors would have been most unlikely to have delayed paying over your money in breach of his professional and contractual duties.

Short change from sister
Q. Last year my father-in-law opened a joint bank account with his sister, who was looking after him. He has now been taken into a home, and has fallen out with his sister. The result is that we are unable to get any money from her for his upkeep. How can we resolve this?
A. If your father-in-law is still capable of managing his affairs he could transfer the money from the account into a joint account with yourselves if he wished, or sign a letter to the bank making you a signatory to the account. If he put all the money into the account it still belongs to him, not his sister. It’s possible your father-in-law will be able to grant you a lasting power of attorney as long as he is capable of understanding what it entails. This would enable you to take over all his financial affairs, including his bank account.