Hi all and Happy New Year! Would anyone like to offer an opinion on an appeal I am looking at?
Mr B claimed CTB April 2006. Mr S returned from working in Saudi Arabia in August. Mr S claimed CTB at the same property and declared a number of bank accounts (most with HSBC Malta) which were in the joint names of Mr S and Mr B. Because the accounts were in joint names, Mr S and Mr B were each treated as possessing half the capital value of the joint accounts (about £65,000 each). Mr B has now appealed the valuation of his capital.
He states that the monies in the Malta acounts originated solely from Mr S, while he was working abroad. The accounts were put in joint names so that Mr B could use the money to manage Mr S’s properties, as access to and from Saudi Arabia is restricted. Apparently Mr B would not use the accounts unless asked to. To add another fly to the ointment, Mr B states that the accounts were fixed term offshore accounts which could not be accessed anyway.
My question is, should I treat them both as joint beneficial owners of the joint accounts and therefore as possessing 50% of the total value each, or is there a trust over the monies so that although Mr B is a joint legal owner, he has no beneficial interest?
To make it more confusing, Mr S and Mr B have now written to the banks concerned stating that the money is not held on an equal basis and requesting that the Malta accounts be put into the name of Mr S. We have treated this as deprivation, which Mr B is also appealing. The fact that the joint account has now been severed in unequal shares makes me think that they were not joint beneficial owners while the account was still in joint names.
Any ideas?!! 🙁
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