Deathbed gifts of registered land (donatio mortis causa)

Rahmen v Hassan and Others [2024] EWHC 1290 (Ch)

by Toby Bishop

As private client practitioners we are familiar with people attempting to redirect their property towards the end of their lives. Although contemplating impending death seems to focus the mind, claims founded on deathbed gifts remain rare. This may be because people (beyond private client practitioners) are unfamiliar with the doctrine. Unfamiliarity might both discourage would-be donors from attempting gifts and donees from seeking to enforce them.