Land law

• Land law


  The study of the relationship between the land, the owner of the land, and any third party rights in land
• The crown owns all the land
• Tenure


  Where you have ownership/interest of land for a period of time
• Freehold


  Where you have ownership of land indefinitely
• Legal estates which exist in land law

  • Leasehold
  • Freehold
• Registered title


  Land to which title has been registered at the Land Registry
• Unregistered title


  Proof of ownership comes from examining the title deeds to the land
• Lord Westbury: 'Unregistered title is 'difficult to read, disgusting to touch, and impossible to understand''
• Interests in land

  • Verifying it is a freehold and the seller has the power to convey/transfer the land
  • Checking the land has sufficient rights which benefit it
  • Checking if any rights burden it
• Easement


  A right that burdens one land and benefits another land
• Trust of land


  The legal owner may hold the land on trust for one or more beneficiaries, who hold equitable/beneficial interests in relation to the land
• Conveyancing process

  1. Investigating title, negotiation and agreement

  2. Exchange of contracts

  3. Registration
• S2 Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989 requires a contract for the sale of an interest in land to be in writing and incorporate all the terms which the parties have expressly agreed
• S52(1) Law of Property Act 1925 states all conveyances of land or of any interest therein are void for the purpose of conveying or creating a legal estate unless made by deed
• The roots of modern land law come from 1925 legislation including the Administration of Estates Act, Land Charges Act, Land Registration Act, and Law of Property Act
• Estates and interests in land capable of subsisting or being conveyed or created at law

  • Estate in fee simple absolute in possession (freehold)
  • Term of years absolute (leasehold)
  • Easement, right, or privilege in or over land
  • Rentcharge in possession
  • Charge by way of legal mortgage
  • Other similar charge on land not created by an instrument
• An easement must be granted or created by way of deed to take effect at law


  Common way to create an easement is when the owner of the whole title sells part of the land, subdividing into two parts, and the buyer and seller expressly create an easement for the new land to have a right of way over the original land
• Common legal and equitable rights in land

  • Legal: Freehold estate, Leasehold estate, Easement, Mortgage

  Equitable: Interests of beneficiaries under a trust of land, Burden of a restrictive covenant in freehold land, Estate contract
• Significance of distinction between legal and equitable rights

  • Right to remedy and type of remedy available

  Enforcement of the right against 'successors in title' to the land which is burdened by the right
• Rights in rem


  A right enforceable against everyone, a right in the land itself therefore enforceable against anyone who comes to possess the land burdened by the right
• Rights in personam


  A right enforceable only against a particular person, not the land itself
• Legal right


  Enforceable against everyone
• Equitable right


  Enforceable against certain persons/classes of person - did they have NOTICE of the interest?
• Historical development

  1. Growth of equity (e.g. trust - arises when land is shared between two or more people and splits legal and equitable ownership of land)

  2. Example scenario: A transfers freehold estate to B, for B to hold the legal estate on trust for the benefit of A's family
• Rights in rem


  A right enforceable against everyone. A right in the land itself therefore enforceable against anyone who comes to possess the land burdened by the right
• Rights in personam


  A right enforceable against certain persons or certain classes of person
• The effect of the bona fide purchaser for value without notice is to destroy the equitable interest involved
• 1925 legislation

  1. Reduced number of legal estates and interests

  2. Provided a system of registration of land ownership - the Land Register maintained by the Land Registry

  3. Created a system whereby some equitable interests had to be registered as Land Charges in order to be enforceable against future purchasers of the land burdened - the Land Charges Register maintained by the Land Charges Department

  4. Created a procedure whereby some equitable interests, which might otherwise be enforceable against a future purchaser of the legal estate could be removed from the land so that the purchase would take free of them: 'overreaching'
• Registered Title


  Title is registered - i.e. the land register a the Land Registry is proof of who owns a particular legal estate in the land concerned. Conclusive and relatively easy to check ownership
• Unregistered Title


  Title is not registered - proof of who owns a legal estate in the land is in the historical paper deeds to the land. But the Land Charges Register created a record of some interests that burden unregistered land
• Common interests which should be registered as Land Charges in unregistered land

  • A puisne mortgage (Land Charge Class C(i))
  • An estate contract (Land Charge Class C (iv))
  • A restrictive covenant (Land Charge Class D(ii))
  • An equitable easement (Land Charge Class D (iii))
• Legal rights


  Bind the world, do not require registration (exception - a puisne mortgage must be registered as a Ci Land Charge)
• Equitable rights


  If created before 1.1.26 enforceable unless purchaser is 'equity's darling'. If created on or after 1.1.26 must be registered as a Land Charge at the Land Charges Department against name of estate owner of land burdened at time of creation...unless it is right which is not registrable on the Land Charges Register, in which case 'equity's darling' rules also apply
• Unregistered title


  Land where title is not registered at the Land Registry. Proof of ownership of title is in the title deeds of the land. Seller must prove, through the deeds, an unbroken chain of ownership going back for at least 15 years.
• Overreaching


  A process which allows the legal estate to be conveyed/transferred free of some specific equitable rights which would otherwise continue to bind a purchaser of it. Can apply to the beneficial/equitable interest of a beneficiary under a trust of land. To overreach, some important technical requirements must be met. Put simply, where land is sold by trustees (plural) and the purchase money is paid to those trustees, the beneficial interest will no longer affect the land sold and will instead be in the purchase money.
• s4 Land Registration Act 2002 - if the freehold estate is unregistered, the transfer of the freehold estate will trigger the requirement for compulsory registration of the freehold estate at the Land Registry within 2 months
• S1(1) Law of Property Act 1925 - only 2 legal estates exist in law: leasehold and freehold
• S1(2) Law of Property Act 1925 - outlines that the following are legal interests in land:

  • easement
  • freehold estate
  • leasehold estate
  • mortgage
• S1(3) Law of Property Act 1925 - states that all other interests not mentioned in s1(2) are equitable interests
• S52 Law of Property Act 1925 - outlines formalities in creation of legal rights in land