Bankrupcy and Property Adjustment Orders

In Avis v Turner and another [2007] EWCA Civ 748, the Court of Appeal decided that the equity jurisdiction enabled a trustee in bankruptcy to enforce a trust for sale of a matrimonial home held jointly by the bankrupt and his former wife under a property adjustment order made more than twenty years ago. The husband was adjudged bankrupt in 1989 and the trustee in bankruptcy applied for the sale of the property in October 2005. The Court said it was open to the court to make an order for sale on an application made by the trustee in bankruptcy under s 14 of the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 pursuant to s 335A of the Insolvency Act 1986, as inserted by the 1996 Act, which required such an application to be made to the bankruptcy court. For an article by Professor Gareth Miller, 'The Effect of Bankruptcy on Property Adjustment Orders' see October [2007] Fam Law.