Personal and joint ownership of immovable property acquired during the subsistence of a Marriage

1.0.Introduction

“Counsel, is it possible to acquire and own property (ies) alone during marriage?”

 As a legal practitioner, the writer has had to deal with questions of this nature which obviously come in many other forms, on several occasions. The reality is that, many married couples, and  individuals in Ghana are under the belief that marriage places some limitation(s) on the rights of spouses owning property alone during the marriage. It is not surprising therefore that in recent times, there have been numerous discourses by Judges, Lawyers and persons dabbling in the legal field, on the ownership of property acquired during the subsistence of marriage. The concern of this article is with respect to immovable properties which basically is land. 

Land by definition includes the land and any structure and or building on it. Obviously, classification and or ownership of property during a marriage may seem trivial 
and typically are not a factor or a cause for concern for spouses, probably with the view to sustaining the social cohesion. However, the classification of ownership of property becomes very important in the events of separation, divorce or death. 

In this article, the writer reviews articles 18 and 22 of the 1992 constitution, the Lands Act, 2020 (Act 1036) specifically, sections 38(3), 38(4) and 47, and judicial decisions including Mensah v Mensah, Quartson v Quartson, Arthur v Arthur and Fynn v Fynn, Peter Adjei v Margaret Adjei (Civil Appeal)(No.J4/06/2021) and Gilbert Anyetei v Sussana Anyetei (CA/J4/67/2021), with the aim of analyzing the legal position on individual ownership of property during marriage.