Land Law

Introduction
Key features of Land Law
● Personal v Proprietary
Right
●

Proprietary if:

Falls within
Substantive Legal Legal Right v
Definition Equitable Interest in
Land

Formalities

Registered or
Unregistered Land
Property
Property
●

Things v property
What is property 1?
●
Property is a power relationship
○
‘This is my property’ – asserts a degree of social and legal control over that resource

○
‘In legal usage property is not the land or thing, but is in the land or thing’ Dorman v
Rogers (1982)
What is Property 2?
●

●
Property is a social and legal institution governing the use of most things,
and the allocation of some items of social wealth (Harris Property and
Justice (1996 Clarendon Oxford))
●
Property
●

Land v personal property

●
Nature of relationship
○
Not absolute

■
Fragmentation

■
Relative

■
Governmental controls
Land v Personal Property 2
●
Use and purpose
○
Multiple

■
Food production

■
Social

■
Recreational

■
Work/commercial

■
Security

■
Shelter
Land v Personal Property 3
●
Nature of rights
○
personal (rights in personam)

○
proprietary (rights in rem)

●
Remedies
○
rights in personam
■
Contractual

■
BUT see equitable interests/trusts

○
rights in rem
■
Transferable, affects third parties
Land v Personal Property 4
●

●
Formality requirements
○
Contract can be oral

○
Land – specific formality requirements (with minor exceptions)
●
 Land v Personal Property 5

●
Legal terminology
○
Personal property: choses in action, choses in possession (chattels)

○
Land: corporeal (tangible), incorporeal (intangible)
●
Definition of Land
Definition of Land - Statutory
●
Five dimensions of land

‘land of any tenure and mines and minerals, whether or not held apart
from the surface, buildings or parts of buildings (whether the division is
horizontal, vertical or made in any other way) and other corporeal
hereditaments; also a manor, an advowson, and a rent and other
incorporeal hereditaments, and an easement, right, privilege, or
benefit in, over, or derived from land’. LPA 1925, s 205 (1)(ix) (See
also Land Registration Act 2002, s 132 (1)).
●

●
 Definition: 1st/2nd Dimensions

●
1st 2 dimensions – what
see on map
Definition: 3rd dimention
●
3rd dimension
○
buildings or parts of buildings

○
corporeal hereditaments (tangible rights)

■
Section 62 (1) of the Law of Property Act 1925

■
“A conveyance of land shall be deemed to include … with the land all
buildings, erections, fixtures, commons, hedge, ditches, fences, ways,
waters, water-courses …”

○
Definition: 3rd dimention (Fixtures)
●
Fixtures/fittings

○
Holland v Hodgson (1872) LR 7 CP 328)

○
Berkley v Poulett [1977] 1 EGLR 86

○
D’Eyncourt v Gregory (1866) LR 3 Eq 382

○
Leigh v Taylor [1902] AC 157

○
London Borough Tower Hamlets v London Borough Bromley [2015] All ER (D) 160
Definition: 3rd Dimension - Intangible
Section 62 (1) of the
Incorporeal
■
○

Law of Property
hereditaments Act 1925
(intangible rights)

■
“A conveyance of land
shall be deemed
to include … with
the land all …
liberties,
privileges,
easements, rights,
and advantages
whatsoever,
appertaining or
reputed to
appertain to the
land …”
●
Definition: 4th Dimension

●
4th dimension
○
estates/time

Ancient idea of tenure

○
Definition: 4th Dimension (Time)
■
All land still held by Crown

■
‘Ownership’ of a slice of time in the land (possessory)

●
Freehold estate (fee simple absolute in possession)

Tenure of potentially unlimited duration

●
Leasehold estate (term of years absolute) – carved out of the
fee simple

Fixed term

●
Life interest

■
If no inheritor: ‘bona vacantia’ (passes to Crown)
Definition: 5th Dimension
●
5th dimension?
●

●
○
Legal dimension – law and equity
●

○
‘ … each estate could itself be the “subject of ownership” both in law and in equity’
(Mabo v Queensland (No 2) (1992)

○
More about 5th Dimension: Law and
Equity
 Law and Equity 1

●
“The two streams of jurisdiction, though they run in the same channel, run
side by side and do not mingle their waters.” (Ashburner, Principles of
Equity, cited everywhere)
●
Law and Equity 2

Form

Substance
Law and Equity 3
●
Two rival jurisdictions – Judicature Acts 1873, 1875
●
Where conflict, equity prevails
●
Law  right, Equity  discretionary remedy
●
Equity acts in personam (contempt  imprisonment)
○
Law jurisdiction over property
 Legal or Equitable Interest? 1

●
Statute
●
Formalities
●
Co-ownership
●
Implied trust
 Legal or Equitable Interest? 2

●
Statute
○
S1 Law of Property Act 1925

■
Only estates capable of existing as legal estates

●
fee simple absolute in possession; term of years absolute

■
Only interests capable of existing as legal interests

●
easement, rentcharge, charge by way of legal mortgage

○
All other interests and charges take effect as equitable interests

■
includes life interest, freehold covenants

●
 Legal or Equitable Interest? 3

●
Formalities
○
S1 LPA 1925
■
Estates/interests may be legal

■
Means also may be equitable

●
Fail to comply with formality

s52(1) LPA 1925 (s1 LP(MP)A 1989)

s4 & s27 Land Registration Act 2002

NB Equity has own formality requirements (s2 LP(MP)A 1989)

BUT proprietary estoppel (NB not covered or assessed in Land Law)

●
Co-ownership – held as trust
●
Implied trust – constructive, resulting trusts
Trust
●
One person (the trustee) manages property for the benefit of another (the
beneficiary)
○
Trustees own and control legal estate
○
Beneficiaries can live in property or receive the income or use the capital
○
Trustees and beneficiaries can be same people (co-ownership)
○
Trusts of land common – law provides co-owned property held under trust
Central Concerns
Central Concerns
●
Differs over jurisdictions
●
England and Wales

○
Versatility – requires co-ordination of competing claims
Central Concerns 1
○
Commerciability

○
Alienability

■
‘ … policy of the law for over 100 years to simplify and facilitate
transactions in real property … of great importance that persons
should be able freely and easily to raise money on the security of their
property’ (National Provincial Bank Ltd v Ainsworth [1965 AC 1175,
1233G)

■
Leasehold Reform Act 1967  James v United Kingdom Series A No 98
(1986)

■
Central Concerns 2
○

○
Residential affordable housing

○
Recreational use/environmental

■
Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000

Public right to ‘enter and remain … for the purposes of open-air

●
Will use statutes
○
Registered land
■
LPA 1925, LRA 2002, common law
■

○
Unregistered land
■
LPA 1925, Land Charges Act 1972, common law
Key Aspects
●

●
Personal v proprietary right
●
Registered v unregistered land
●
Formality requirements
●
Law v equity
Answering Land Law Problem Questions
Problem Questions
●
What potential proprietary rights or interests are involved?
●
Is right or interest in question capable of existing as a proprietary right?
(Does it comply with definitional requirements – eg does it have the characteristics of a
lease?)
●
Has a legal right or equitable interest been created?
(Have appropriate formalities been complied with – eg is there a deed, has it been
registered?)
●
Where more than one right or interest involved, whose right takes priority?
(Look at in week 5 semester 2 Land Registration)
NB – registered land only (possible exception – adverse possession)