Introduction
Marital homes are often purchased in the joint names of
husbands and wives. It is also common that the husband would
get a bank loan and mortgage the marital home as security. In
such circumstance, the wife as joint owner will be required by
the mortgagee bank to stand surety for the loan.
In the Hong Kong Court of Appeal case, Bank of China
(Hong Kong) Ltd v Well Lok Printing Ltd & Others
(2008), such security documents signed by the wife
were challenged and the presumption of undue influence raised
in defence.
The Case
In the above case, the husband and wife purchased a
residential property in their joint names. The wife's
understanding was that she was not required to make any
financial contribution towards the purchase and the mortgage
loan would be taken up by the husband alone and all that was
required of her was to agree to have the property charged as
security for
