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property law

Amaryllis owns a large country estate, Artichoke Park, which she bought ten years ago for £1 million. The estate includes a farm-house, in which Amaryllis lives with her brother Basil, and a number of small cottages. When Amaryllis bought the estate, her brother Basil had provided £100,000 of the purchase price, although Amaryllis and Basil had agreed that the estate would be transferred into Amaryllis’s sole name. Basil has lived in the farm-house since then; he has contributed to the payment of the gas and electricity bills, and has used some money which he inherited from a friend to have the roof of the farm-house replaced and a new kitchen installed. Five years ago, Amaryllis had learned that her cousin Cecily, who had been ill for some years and had been unable to work, was in difficult circumstances. She was living in a flat rented from the local authority, and although she would be able to stay in this for the rest of her life if she wished, she had expressed a desire to live in more peaceful surroundings. Amaryllis had said to Cecily “Don’t worry about a thing - you know that I will always make sure that you have a nice home”, and had invited her to live in one of the cottages on the estate. Cecily surrendered the tenancy of her flat and moved into the cottage. On the day after Cecily had moved in, Amaryllis said to her “You can stay here for the rest of your life, and in case anything happens to me I will make sure that you are provided for”. While the new kitchen was being installed in the farm-house, the builders had found a tin containing a large number of £50 notes hidden under the floorboards. Amaryllis suspects that this may have been placed there by Daisy, the elderly and very absent-minded former owner of Artichoke Park, before she sold the estate to Amaryllis. Daisy died two years ago, but Amaryllis knows that her daughter Erica still lives nearby. Flora is the leasehold tenant of one of the other cottages in Artichoke Park. Recently, while she was digging in the garden of her cottage, she unearthed a pottery vase containing a number of gold-coloured coins, and a small statue made of bronze (an alloy of copper and tin). The items appear to be of considerable age, and Flora suspects that they are extremely valuable. She has not told anyone about her discovery. Yesterday, Flora’s young son Garry found a gold watch on the public footpath which runs around Artichoke Park. He took it to a local jeweller to enquire about its value, but the jeweller said “That’s too good for the likes of you” and refused to return it to him. Advise the inhabitants of Artichoke Park about their legal rights and responsibilities. In June 2013, the England football team were due to play a qualifying match for the 2014 World Cup. Tensions were high: Everton had recently beaten Manchester United 12-1 in the FA Cup Final; after the defeat, Manchester United decided to introduce a cap on wages of £10,000 per player per week. Within days, every Premiership football team had announced that they would do the same. Premiership footballers were understandably angry and asked all football supporters to protest on their behalf. One day before the match, newspapers revealed that John, captain of the England football team and married for six years with no children, had been secretly dating Cheryl, the ex-wife of his team-mate Ashley. Apparently the relationship between John and Cheryl had been going on for 18 months – ever since she lost her job on a show called USA-Fact and moved back to England. The newspapers also suggested that one football club owner had hired a hit-man to deal with any player who continued to complain about the wage cap. A solicitor staying at the hotel was worried about the threat to the players and advised them to write wills. John laughed and said that he was too young to think about that sort of thing (he was 33 years old). Joe said he didn’t need to: he and his wife Hilda had agreed that when either of them died, the property of the deceased would pass directly to their two children; they’d made wills to that effect in 2011 and he was bound by that agreement. Ashley and Wayne decided that they would write wills. In his will, Wayne left £50,000 to Phil; everything else would go to Wayne’s wife and children. Ashley left £100,000 to Roy and £50,000 to Leon. Phil and a waitress witnessed the wills made by Wayne and Ashley. The match kicked off. Throughout the stadium, football fans waved placards protesting against the wage cap. England scored a goal; in their excitement, the football fans threw their placards into the air. Unfortunately, as they did so, a strong gust of wind caught the placards. The placards flew on to the pitch and landed on top of the players. John, Wayne and Joe were killed outright. Ashley was mortally wounded. He whispered to Roy “I’ve left £100,000 to you in my will but it’s all for Leighton. There’s a letter in my locker that says more.” Roy nodded. Ashley then whispered to Leon “I hope you’ll be fair to the team.” Ashley died on the way to the hospital. Within weeks, Joe’s widow (Hilda) married Roy and executed a will in which she left everything to her new husband. On their honeymoon, however, she was trampled by a rhinoceros and died. Advise Cheryl, Roy, Phil, Leon and Leighton. please i need help with this question urgently have started but quite confused deadline is on monday