The Law Commission: Third Report on Family Property: The Matrimonial Home (Co‐ownership and Occupation Rights) and Household Goods. (Law Com. No. 86)
| Published date | 01 March 1979 |
| Author | Olive M. Stone |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1979.tb01525.x |
| Date | 01 March 1979 |
REPORTS
OF
COMMITTEES
THE
LAW
COMMISSION
:
THIRD
REPORT
ON
FAMILY
PROPERTY:
THE
MATRIMONIAL
HOME
(CO-OWNERSHIP
AND
OCCUPATION
RIGHTS)
AND
HOUSEHOLD
GOODS.
(LAW
Cm.
No.
86)
THE
Law
Commission has taken a long time to produce
its
report on
proposals for co-wnership
of
the matrimonial home. In 1973
it
felt
contident enough
to
anticipate in print that it would submit a Report
with draft legislation during the course
of
that year,' but almcxst
another five years elapsed (before the Report eventually appeared in
June
1978.
This
is
quite a substantial publication running to 407 pages. It
covers thrce quite distinct quostions,
in
respect
of
each
of
which it
includes a separate draft Bill, and
is
divided into three
books,
each
of
which requires separate consideration.
The major question, with which
Book
One
is
concerned.
is
Co-
ownership
of
the Matrimonial Home,
which together with the draft
Matrimonial Homes (Co-ownership) Bill
occupies
240
pages.
Book
Two
deals with
Occupation Rights in the Matrimonial Home,
and
suggestod amendments
to
!the Matrimonial Homes Act 1967, and a
draft
Matrimonial Homes (Rights
of
Occupation) Bill
in 93 pages,
and Book
I11
deals with the use and enjoyment
of
caravans and
houseboats used as matrimonial homes, and with the use and enjoy-
ment of household goods, all included
in
a draft Matrimonial
Goods
Bill.
I.
Statutory Co-ownership
of
the Matrimonial Home
This is clearly the part
of
the Rcport #hat has caused the greatest
delay and difficulty. Very heavy weather is being made over the
introduction into England of a marital vato on disposal
of
ithe matri-
monial home that has been operative for more than 60 years
in
Western Canada,2 and over
100
years in some States of #the American
-
__
1
Law Com. 52,
Fanlily
hw:
First Report
oil
Family
Property:
A
New
Approach
(May 1973).
Surtirriary
of
Conclusioris
aird
l'rogranime
of
Work,
para.
62
(I).
The
Matrirnoitial Hoine,
p.
20.
2
Matrimonial Homes (Co-ownership) Bill, cl.
21
(I).
As to Canada, see W.
P.
Bowker:
"
Reform
of
the Law of Dower in Alberta," 1 Alberta Law R. (195%51),
p.
501. Dower and curtesy were both abolished in the North-West Territories (parts
of
which were in 1905 to become the provinces
of
Alberta and Saskatchewan) in
1886,
when a Torrens system
of
registration of titles to land was introduced in the
Territories Real Property Act. In 1915 Alberta passed the Married Woman's Home
Protection Act, which gave the wife no property right in the hommtead (so-called)
but introduced thc Married Woman's caveat, entry
of
which clouded the husband's
title and prevented dealings in the land. In
1917
this was replaced by the Dower Act,
which provided that any dispo\ition
of
the homestead without the wife's written
consent was
I'
null and void," and gavc her a life estate in the homestead arising
on
the husband's death.
It
is accepted that this and subsequent Dower Acts were in fact
Homestead Acts. Saskatchewan's Homesteads Act was also
first
passed in 1915,
required the wife's consent
for
any disposition
of
the homestead and gave her
a
right
of
occupation
or
to
receive rents and proflts
of
the land
if
necessary
for
her support.
In Manitoba, the Dower Act was passed in 1918.
192
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