Section 249A — Bankruptcy Act 1966: Charge over property owned in joint tenancy

(1) Where: (a) an amount equal to the value of improvements made to property owned by a deceased person in respect of whose estate an order is made for administration under this Part and another person or other persons as joint tenants forms, for the purposes of section 249, part of the divisible property of the estate of the deceased person; and (b) the property is owned by that other person, or is owned (whether as joint tenants or otherwise) by all or some of those other persons and no other person, on the day on which the order for the administration of the estate under this Part is made; there is created, by force of this subsection, a charge on that property to secure the payment of that amount. (2) The charge created on property by subsection (1): (a) is subject to every charge or encumbrance to which the property was subject immediately before the time at which the order for administration under this Part was made; (b) subject to subsection (3), has priority over all other charges or encumbrances whatsoever; and (c) subject to subsection (3), is not affected by any change of ownership of the property. (3) A charge created by subsection (1) on any property: (a) ceases to have effect in respect of the property upon the sale of the property to a bona fide purchaser for value who, at the time of the purchase, has no notice of the charge; and (b) is postponed in favour of a further charge, or an encumbrance, on the property acquired bona fide and for value by a person who, at the time of the acquisition, had no notice of the first-mentioned charge. (4) Where a charge is created by subsection (1) on property of a particular kind and the provisions of any law of the Commonwealth or of a State or Territory provide for the registration of charges over property of that kind, the trustee of the estate may cause the charge to be registered under the provisions of that law and, if he or she does so, a person who purchases or otherwise acquires the property, or an interest in the property, after registration of the charge shall, for the purposes of subsection (3), be deemed to have notice of the charge.