Today's Daily Mail scare story exposes a new EU Tory split with Shadow Justice Secretary Dominic Grieve outflanking Daniel Hannan as a eurosceptic.
Today’s Daily Mail scare story exposes a new EU Tory split with Shadow Justice Secretary Dominic Grieve outflanking Daniel Hannan as a eurosceptic.
The story titled “Could the EU ‘house grab’ law be applied to UK homes?” outlines fears that:
“British citizens could have their homes snatched from them on the orders of a European court under a new Brussels power grab.”
Dominic Grieve is quoted saying:
“It beggars belief that Ministers are considering signing up to rules which would create such uncertainty in the property market and could even see British families lose their homes as a result of legal cases overseas involving people they have never known and in which they might not be represented.
“The Government’s own advisers say that this rule could ‘blight’ properties and add considerable costs to moving home, so we should not hesitate to reject it.”
But these fears are just that: a scare story. Although in many EU countries, there is a legal requirement that a proportion of the deceased estate should be left to blood relatives, this will not apply in the UK. Indeed, the Government has made clear that it will remain a fundamental principle of UK law that individuals are free to determine what to do with their assets during their lifetime and to determine (by making a will) how any remaining assets are distributed after their death.
And praise for the legislation comes from an unusual source. Eurosceptic MEP Daniel Hannan, who recently resigned from his front bench role in protest at David Cameron’s Lisbon Treaty u-turn, released a press release on the law chanhe in October, which said:
“What is being proposed is proportionate, restrained and, above all, voluntary. At a time when many in Brussels are pursuing the mistaken goal of the harmonisation of civil law, this idea represents a superior alternative: one that would allow the citizen to choose between different national systems.
“If the EU restricted itself to cross-border issues of this kind, it might not be so unpopular.”
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7 Responses to “New Tory EU split as Grieve outflanks Hannan as sceptic”
Rob
“Completely wrong. It could only apply if it was given to them by someone with relatives abroad.”
“That is also completely wrong. There could never be “clawback” on a property previous owned by someone else. It could only apply if a property had been given to another person.”
Sorry, you’re wrong. The property could have been bought FROM someone who had been given it. Some EU countries limit recovery to the “first donee”. Others don’t. Some don’t allow recovery from a subsequent purchaser but do allow them to be pursued for a monetary sum instead. Read the paper by the Professor cited in the article – it was commissioned by the Ministry.
It could also apply if the property hadn’t been an outright gift, but had been sold for less than its value.
Mark
Ah, so just to be clear, if the UK Government decides to opt in to the proposals, and if UK law on title was amended as a result, and if someone was to buy a house in the UK from a (non-UK) citizen of certain EU states and if it turned out that the property had previously been given to someone else as a gift, or for a nominal peppercorn sum, and if the person who gave the house away, or sold it for a dime, then died, and if their offspring were seeking to recoup their parents’ assets and if they couldn’t do so by pursuing the person to whom the property was given, or sold at a nominal value, then it might just be possible to make a challenge to the person who now owns the house bought from the person who had earlier given it as a gift, or sold it at a peppercorn sum. Yes it’s clear now. It’s a massive threat, obviously, to millions of homeowners.