What can I do to reclaim land from my girlfriend?
Dear Mirror Lawyer, I purchased land in my girlfriend's name, intending that when we marry, we will build on it and live there as our matrimonial home.
The relationship, however, fell apart, and our dream never materialised.
I asked her to transfer the land back to my name, but she has refused, insisting that, because the land documents are in her name, she owns it. What can I do to reclaim my property?
Musah, Kumasi.
Dear Musah, transactions of this nature are very common and have been adjudicated upon many times in our courts.
What propels people to go to court in this case is confusion about the legal effect of the actual owner of the land (beneficial ownership) and the person whose name appears on the land documents (legal ownership).
Generally, the person whose name is on the land document is presumed to be the owner of the land, and in most situations, that is the case.
However, in some cases, this presumption can be rebutted. This implies that a person can buy land in another person's name for personal reasons while still treating the land as his own property. In that case, the legal title is said to be vested in one person, while the beneficial title, which is superior to the legal title, is vested in another.
In law, when husband and wife or parents and their children have property in their names, advancement can be presumed to the named person.
However, the law, in all other cases, says that when property is purchased in the name of another person, the named person would be presumed to be holding the land in trust for the one who advanced the purchase money unless a contrary intention is expressed by the person who advanced the purchase money that the property is being gifted to the one named in the document.
Once the presumption is rebutted that the person who advanced the purchasing money did not intend a gift, loan, or advancement, the court can make orders requiring the person in whose name the property was purchased to transfer it to the person who advanced the purchasing money. It is important to state that the person who advanced the purchasing money must prove that he did so.
One significant case on this issue determined by the courts in Ghana is Ussher v Darko [1977]. In that case, a man bought a piece of land, built it, and had the conveyance prepared in his girlfriend's name.
The man rented the property to tenants and collected the rents. Later, the girlfriend, without the man's consent, purported to sell the house to the plaintiff, who then sued the tenants for possession.
The man joined the suit and claimed the property as his own, alleging that the girlfriend was a bare trustee of the house with no beneficial interest.
The Court of Appeal, relying on the English case of Dyer v. Dyer (1788) held that the girlfriend in whose name the property was purchased by the man had legal title to the property, but that she held it as a bare trustee, i.e., on a resulting trust for the actual purchaser, in this case the man, in whom resided the beneficial interest.
The court also held that if the man had bought the property in the name of a legitimate or illegitimate child, a grandchild whose father was dead, or a wife, the equitable presumption of advancement to such relations would have applied.
Applying the case principles and the legal rules above to the facts of your case, since you advanced the purchasing money, i.e., the money used to buy the land, it belongs to you.
I would therefore advise that you obtain the services of a lawyer to sue on your behalf for the recovery of the land that you purchased in the name of your fiancée.
If she has sold the land, you can trace the property and, in a worst-case scenario, recover the money realised from its sale.
The success of your claim, as indicated above, will depend on whether you can prove to the court that indeed you advanced the purchasing money for the land.
