LAND LAW ASSIGNMENT QUESTION Semester 1 2024

Tandizani and Tiamike Phiri owned a homestead in Lusaka west jointly. It is a

beautiful four hectares property. Tiamike also owned another property in Kafue

which was wholly in her name before she married Tandizani. After they got

married, she decided to give Tandizani 40% of the property, while she remained

with 60%. As a way of developing the homestead in Lusaka West, they had decided

to rent out the property in Kafue to a property developer Mr. Musipiki Mabwe who

built several ware houses on the property to store his building materials. The

tenant was also residing on the property as there was a house that had been built

there by Tiamike. The tenancy agreement was for a fixed term of five (5) years,

with rentals being paid on a yearly basis with a condition that it could be renewed

for a further five (5) years on agreement by both parties. Since the property was

huge with plenty of land, the couple decided to get a building loan with Standard

chartered bank to run for six (6) years. Using that loan, the couple built a couple

of stand-alone apartments altogether valued at ZMW 3,000,000.00. They

immediately started leasing them out. Unfortunately for them due to the distance

of the farm and the Covid 19 pandemic, the whole of 2020, they never had any

clients and so they are behind on their mortgage payments and the bank is

threatening to repossess the farm which had been put up as collateral.

Tandizani and Tiamike have no children. The two keep their elderly parents and two

dependants from either side. What they both have not revealed to each other is

that they had each a child prior to their marriage that they have put in boarding

school. Tiamike has a son called Tom whle Tandizani has a daughter called Roselyn.

The couple was coming from a meeting in town with their solicitor when they were

involved in an accident. They had been in the process of drawing up wills for the
two properties but never concluded. They both died on the spot. Tandizani was 60

and Tiamike was 55. However, Tiamike was suffering from a terminal disease and

she had been given only a few months to live. According to the latest report from

the doctor, any kind of stress would cause her to die instantly. It is thus believed

that she probably died first though there is no evidence attesting to that fact.

Concerning the property in Kafue, the lease expired the very month that Tandizani

and Tiamike died and had yet to be renewed. Skeptical about entering into a new

lease with the new beneficiaries of the properties, the tenant Mr. Mabwe decided

not to renew it and instead vacate the premises. On a bright Saturday morning, he

was with his workers in the process of taking apart the ware houses when he was

descended upon by the lawyer representing the beneficiaries who served him with

an injunction restraining him from taking apart any buildings or improvements on

the property on the ground that the said buildings and improvements formed part

and parcel of the property and as such belonged to the estate of the deceased

Tandizani and Tiamike and not the tenant Mr. Mabwe.

You are the family lawyer and administrator appointed by the children to

administer the two estates of Tandizani and Tiamike. You are approached by the

lawyer representing the tenant Mr. Mabwe as to a possible out of court settlement

on the issues that have arisen.

Task: Using the law, other authorities and case law;

a. Identify all the legal issues in the above scenario.

b. Explain in detail the legal interests/estate held by both Tandizani and

Tiamike in the two properties to the four children.

c. Explain how the interests/estates will be divisible to the beneficiaries since

there was no will.

d. Explain to the beneficiaries on what is supposed to happen to the ware houses

on the property in Kafue.

Instructions:

PRESENTATION FORMAT (You will be penalized if you do not follow this format)

Your paper should not be more than four (4) pages long (EXCLUDING cover page

and bibliography). Work must be neatly typed using Times New Roman, 12 and line

spacing of 1.5 and justified. All sources must be fully acknowledged and

appropriately referenced using the Chicago School Referencing Style. Plagiarism or

any attempt to replicate another person’s work as your own will earn you serious

sanction by the faculty. All work must be submitted over TURNITIN.

TURN IT IN STANDARDS

INDEX REMARKS

00-30 Assignment marked and full marks awarded.

30-50 50% of grade, or if you fail, the lower of the two grades.

50-100 No marks awarded for the assignment at all.

Your work should include a comprehensive bibliography of all the material you used

for your research and should appear on its own page. Five (5) marks will be awarded

for a comprehensive bibliography. (Also see: Kate L. Turabian: A Manual for

Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, as a guideline for good

writing using the Chicago Style)

LANGUAGE

Ensure that you use standard British English when writing your dissertation.

DATE ISSUED: 23/09/2021

DATE DUE : 05/10/2021