Family Home Protection Act 1976

Section 3 of the Act sets forth the requirement for consent: (1) Where a spouse, without the prior consent in writing of the other spouse, purports to convey any interest in the family home to any person except the other spouse, then, subject to subsections (2) and (3) and section 4, the purported conveyance shall be void. There are a number of issues here. First, the consent must be prior to the transaction. This requirement has been interpreted regularly. In Bank of Ireland v Hanrahan, it was held that a mortgage by deposit of title deeds was not created when the deeds were left overnight in the bank, but rather the next morning when the defendant consented to the creation of the mortgage. In Bank of Ireland v Smyth, it was held that consent had to be voluntary and fully informed. Although Mrs. Smyth had signed a consent form for the purposes of s.3, she was not aware of the implications of that consent and therefore it was held not to be valid. ==Notes and references==