Introduction to Land Law Summary notes-Land Law

Introduction to Land Law:



The significance of land:  Historically, legal rights were enforceable only in the
common law courts of the king and equitable rights
 Land law deals with the legal relationship between land were enforceable only by the Lord Chancellor in the
and the owner of that land Court of Chancery but only at his discretion
 Ownership of land is made up not only rights one may  Currently, legal rights are distinguished from equitable
have over one’s own land but also rights one may have rights in land because only the owner of a legal estate
over a neighbour’s land can deal with the estate at law and the owner of the
The definition of land: equitable estate merely has rights in equity
 The owner of an equitable estate may be able to claim
 S.205 (1) (ix) Law of Property Act 1925- ‘Land of any the right to be consulted before the legal estate is sold
tenure, and mines and minerals, whether or not held and in certain circumstances the purchaser may take the
apart from the surface, buildings or parts of buildings estate subject to an equitable estate
(whether the division is horizontal, vertical or made in  Apart from the two legal estates arising under s.1 (1)
any other way) and other corporeal hereditaments and LPA 1925 there are lesser interests that are enforceable
incorporeal hereditaments at law, called legal interests which are listed under s.1(2)
LPA 1925 (e.g. easements and legal mortgages)
Terminology:  Any right that can exist at law may give rise to a legal
right, but only if certain statutory requirements are met
 Estates in land- abstract term that defines the rights that
an owner of an estate has in relation to the land (e.g. legal rights in land must generally be created and
sold by deed LPA 1925 s.52 (1)
 Interests in land- rights over the land of another
 Both are legal if they are recofgnisied by law as being  Any right that does not qualify as a right in law must
necessarily exist in equity: LPA 1925 s.1(3):
legal and are created in accordance with the
requirements of the law (statute/case) but are equitable  Interests of a beneficiary- under a trust- the trustee
owns the legal estate and the beneficiary owns the
if they are not legal and are recognised by equity and
created in accordance with the requirements of equity equitable estate
 Interests under contract to create legal estates or
Real and personal property: interests- the purchaser is treated as owning an
equitable estate from the date the contracts are
 Property is divided into real and personal property exchanged
 Real property:  Interests that are improperly created- a deed must be
 Is made of land and is property that can be recovered by used to convey an interest in land and it must be signed,
a real action, allowing a claimant to recover the property witnessed and delivered (s.52 LPA 1925 and s.1(1) LP
itself (MP) 1989)
 An estate in land is a right over land for a period of time  Interests that become equitable as a result of statutory
and is also known as real property reform- any interest that is not within s.1(1) or s.1(2)
 Under the Law of Property Act (LPA) 1925 s.1(1) there LPA 1925 (e.g. life estates) will only exist in equity
are only two legal estates in land: legal and freehold  The main difference lies in the enforceability of these
 Land includes rights called incorporeal and corporeal rights against third parties:
hereditaments:  Legal rights are enforceable against the world but in
 Hereditaments are rights in land that can be inherited registered land, the right will only take effect in law
and so can pass through a will when it has been entered on the register
 Corporeal hereditaments are physical objects (e.g. land  Equitable rights can only be enforced against third
and anything attached to it) parties who have notice of these rights either through
 Incorporeal hereditaments are rights in land that are not registration or occasionally in unregistered land because
physical things (e.g. easements) but can be very valuable they have actual notice of the rights
 Personal property:
 Is property that can only be recovered by a personal Pre-1925 law and is problems:
action, allowing the defendant a choice between the
return of the item or paying a sum in damages  Fragmentation of ownership and multiplicity of estates:
there could be many different legal estates in the same
 The important issues are whether a right over land is
personal or proprietary: land, eg, fee simple absolute in possession; fee tail; term
of years absolute; life interests.
 A proprietary right is a right in the land itself, which can
be binding on a third- party purchaser. In order to be  Difficulties in proving ownership of estates in land –
called proving ‘good root of title’. Title (ownership) was
proprietary, a right must be capable of attaching to the
land itself proved by way of the ‘title deeds.
 Difficulties in identifying whether there were any third
 National Provincial Bank v Ainsworth- a wife’s
occupation of the matrimonial home was only a party or beneficial interests in the land
 Difficulties in protecting your third party or beneficial
personal right, not proprietary
 A personal right is a right against another person and interest in a piece of land if someone purchased that
land
cannot bind a third party
 All of the above meant that there were problems with
Legal and equitable rights: the ‘alienability’ of land, ie, that it was difficult to buy,