QLD Tenants in Common - Paying One Party More Than 50%?

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annib

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19 January 2017
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We have a situation where my husband owns a property jointly with his brother as tenants in common in equal shares. Upon sale of the property, is it possible for one party to authorise the solicitors acting on the sale to pay an amount to one of the parties that is more than their 50% share?
 

Rod

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27 May 2014
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is it possible for one party to authorise the solicitors acting on the sale

The key word in your question is "possible".

Yes, it is possible, however one party by themselves should not be able to authorise payment of more than the allocated shares split to themselves. If that happens then there is a case to be made against the solicitors acting without proper instruction.

If you are concerned about this possibility then you should write to the solicitor advising them the split is to occur (eg 50/50) as per the ownership split.

This presupposes there is no other agreement coming in over the top of the sale of the property (eg another separate agreement saying the property is to be sold and the split is to be xx/yy) or an existing court order mandating a bb/dd split. If there is another agreement, the solicitor may refuse to accept it as valid if there is any kind of uncertainty about it and just do a 50/50 split anyway and let the brothers sort out the difference.

You can of course vary the split by mutual agreement.