Bricks without shelter: domestic abuse and limits of TOLATA

Sophia Gonella, Barrister, FOURTEEN Chambers

With the government’s consultation on cohabitation reform due later this year, this article examines how the current trusts framework developed under ToLATA 1996 fails to recognise and address the financial impact of domestic abuse on cohabitants, exposing them to a heightened risk of financial vulnerability following separation. Unlike married couples, who are afforded the opportunity to plead ‘conduct’, which can result in a higher award being made to reflect the financial impact that such abuse has had on them, cohabitants are afforded no such recourse. Instead, this article argues that the mechanism of the trusts framework inadvertently yet actively serves to work against cohabitants who have suffered domestic abuse, making it particularly difficult for those individuals to acquire a beneficial interest in their partner’s property and/or acquire a fair share of the property. This is a particularly important, yet often overlooked element of the trusts framework, which arguably discriminates against those who have been subjected to domestic abuse (particularly financial abuse) at the hands of their partner with whom they cohabit. 

The full article has published in the December issue of Family Law.  Find out more or request a free 1-week trial of Family Law journal. Please quote: 100482

Read the full article here.