Land Law

In 1953, Huatahi built a house on his whanau's whenua after his marriage broke up - Huatahi had four children from his first marriage. At that time, there were 11 owners of the whenua (his siblings), and they all agreed that Huatahi would be responsible for the rates and maintenance of the house while he lived there. There was no lease or legal document setting out the arrangement. In 1958 Huatahi married Edith - they had no children. Edith sold her house in Auckland so that they (she and Huatahi) could significantly upgrade the home. Huatahi died suddenly in 1985 and left Edith a life interest in the house. Phillip, one of Huatahi's sons, was very close to Edith, and so when she got older with his family, he moved in with Edith. Phillip and his whanau lived in the house with Edith, helping her until Edith died in 2019. Edith left Phillip the house in her will.

Now there are 45 owners of the block. Phillip wants to partition the land and the house from the rest of the whanau's whenua. Phillip says that Edith left the house to him and his whanau in her will. However, the rest of the whanau object to any partition and that Edith had no right to leave the house in the will. The whanau argue that the partition will leave them with land that will be hard to access and of little use. Moreover, they have used the ground around the house for their annual kumara garden.

B) Phillip has come to you for advice, use legislation.