Property of deceased insolvents
12.The order-making power contained in Section 421 of the Insolvency Act 1986 is not sufficient to ensure that all property, the ownership of which was vested in a deceased insolvent immediately prior to his death (including his share in property held on a joint tenancy), is available to his creditors in insolvency proceedings where the insolvency order was made after the deceased insolvent's death¹. That means that in some instances, what may appear to be the main, if not the only asset, namely the debtor’s interest in the matrimonial home, will be beyond the reach of his creditors. The Act therefore provides, by way of new Section 421A to the Insolvency Act, that the value of any interest in jointly-owned property, lost to the deceased insolvent’s estate by the operation of the survivorship rules, is to be recoverable for the benefit of that estate and, therefore, for the creditors of the deceased insolvent.
This was established by the decision of the Court of Appeal in the case of In re Palmer Deceased (A Debtor) 1994 Ch. 316.
