When someone pays for property but the legal title sits in another person's name, the law has to decide who really owns the beneficial interest. Equity's answer is often a presumed resulting trust: it assumes the person who provided the money meant to keep a share, unless the facts show otherwise. As a solicitor you will meet this whenever clients fall out over a home, an investment, or money put into someone else's name — and getting the starting presumption right shapes the whole advice you give.
What this lesson covers:
- Nature of Resulting Trusts — what a presumed resulting trust is, the two recognised categories, and how these trusts arise by operation of law rather than agreement.
- Purchase Money Resulting Trusts — when the trust crystallises, how proportionate shares are fixed at acquisition, and which financial contributions actually count.
- Rebutting the Presumption and Advancement — the evidence that defeats a resulting trust, the presumption of advancement, and the relationships where equity presumes a gift instead.
- Family Homes and Distinctions — how the rules shift for the family home, when a common intention constructive trust takes over, and where the resulting trust still applies in full force.