Hotchpot

In property law, hotchpot (sometimes referred to as hotchpotch or the hotchpotch rule) refers to the blending or combining of property in order to ensure equality of division. It usually arises in cases of divorce or in connection with advances made from the estate of a deceased, if so provided for in his Will. Hotchpot was abolished for all persons dying intestate ( that is without a Will)by section 1(2)of the Law Reform (Succession) Act 1995 in respect of all intestates dying on or after January 1, 1996.

The name hotch-pot is taken from a kind of pudding. The term is derived from the French word hocher, or "shake." It was used as early as 1292 as a law term, and from the 15th century in cooking for a sort of broth with many ingredients (see Hodge-Podge soup), and so it is used figuratively for any heterogeneous mixture.