Can a husband who contributed more towards paying off his wife’s mortgage than the wife do so as joint tenants of the matrimonial home?

Cobb v. Cobb, [1955] 2 All E.R. 696, was a case where the title to the matrimonial home was in the names of the husband and wife as joint tenants and each party claimed to be the sole beneficial owner. Romer L.J. at p. 700 said: “Counsel for the husband… submitted that the court had power under s. 17… of the Married Women’s Property Act, 1882, to establish a title to property contrary to the intention of the parties and that it should do so in the present case because the husband contributed so much more towards paying off the mortgage than the wife did. There are two answers to that. The first is that, although the husband’s contributions did in fact considerably exceed those of the wife, the payments which he made were precisely those which were originally contemplated and agreed that he should make and no more. The second is that I know of no power that the court has under s. 17 to vary agreed or established titles to property. It has power to ascertain the respective rights of husband and wife to disputed property and frequently has to do so on very little material; but where, as here, the original rights to property are established by the evidence and those rights have not been varied by subsequent agreement, the court cannot in my opinion, under s. 17 vary those rights merely because it thinks that, in the light of subsequent events, the original agreement was unfair.”