Information

 

Bare ownership

It has already been explained how an owner of property can transfer some of the rights of ownership to another person. And in fact, it is possible for an owner of property to divest themselves of all of the rights associated with owning a property (possession, use and enjoyment, the right of disposal etc) and yet still retain the right of ownership itself - the 'bare' title to the property.

Example: A owns a house which she has bought as an investment property. She pays for the house by borrowing money from a bank and to secure the loan, she gives the bank the right to sell the house and use the proceeds to pay off the loan if she fails to do so herself. She also leases the house for two years to a tenant.

Youyang Pty Ltd v Minter Ellison Morris Fletcher (2003) 212 CLR 484 is an example of bare ownership rights held by a trustee in the trust assets, where the trustee can deal with them (for example, by investing, buying and selling), but all the benefits of those assets accrue to the beneficiary of the trust. The ownership rights are thus split between the trustee, who has 'bare ownership' and the beneficiary, who has 'beneficial ownership'.