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Summary Notes - Introduction To The Law Of Property Relations (LA103)
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Complete study notes detailing each week of the 1st year property law module at Warwick.
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Property Law NotesWeek 1 – Introduction to Property Relations
• Easement: use of someone else's land to a limited extent
• Restrictive covenant: a covenant restricting land use options so that the enjoyment and
value of adjoining land may be preserved
• Nuisance: interference with someone else's rights
• Property is intangible but is about our relations with it, it could be described as control
• The definitions by a academics are more useful for essay arguments
• Property in academia:
• the relationship between people with respect to things (Ackerman)
• Property as a bundle of rights (hohfeld)
• Property as a manmade construct (Kohler) - social construct, which exists because of the law
(intangible)
• Jural networks (Gray)
• Property in case law:
• R (lord chancellor) v chief land registrar 2006): transfer of bundle of rights and obligations
rather than the physical buildings
• Milirrpum v Nabalco (1971): the right to enjoy, to exclude others, to alienate
• Statutory definition defined in the Law of Property act 1925 S.205 (1) - Any thing in action
(with regard to intangible property), real property and personal property
• Adverse possession/ squatters rights - if you live somewhere for a long period of time that
you do not own, then you are entitled to claim better rights than the original owner
Property: split into real property and personal property
Under real property there are:
• Corporeal hereditaments - tangible property that can be passed on across generations
(inherited)
• Incorporeal hereditaments - intangible property that can be passed on across generations
Under personal property:
• Chattels real (leases)
• Chattels personal - personal property - split into chose in action (intangible but can be
transferred by assignment - e.g. a right to a debt) and chosen in possession (something you
can physically get hold of)
Importance of the distinction between land and chattels - important when:
• Leaving property in wills
• On a transfer (sale of land) - what else passes with the transfer
• When property is subject of a mortgage (where money has been lent with the property used
as security for a loan)
• If the property is a heritage building (listed building)
Property according to status of the holder:
• State property - vested in the state, like council housing
• Private property - individual right to exclude others or grant permission of the use of said
property
• Common property - we all have the right to use the property and cannot not exclude others
from using it
• Communal property - property open to all for enjoyment and usage
Features of land
,Land is permanent in nature. It is limited in supply, indestructible (although not if at a cliff edge).
Also capable of multiple use (can enjoy it concurrently and consecutively).
It is also required for human survival, and is treated in law as unique - the discretionary award of
land under a breach of contract is unique to land (with for example the false sale of a car only
damages can be sued for).
Personal property
• Not always personal in nature
• Usually destructible
• Usually incapable of multiple use
Importance of property
Property of personhood - peoplehood - grouphood (property of sentimental to people) vs those
which are fungible (easily replaceable)
Moral difficulties with making air, and human body and body parts property - if someone gains
control to our access to air, it gives them too much power. With regards to the human body there
are questions over whether you can own a dead body. After slavery was abolished the issue over the
living human body being property was ended .
Long held view in English common law that you cannot own a dead body, so to be guilty of theft,
you have to have taken property which you intend to permanently deny someone of.
Property rights - rights which are enforceable against other people:
• In rem…enforceable with respect to the thing (against 3rd parties)
• In personam…enforceable only against another person (e.g. contractual obligation)
License - personal right
Lease - far stronger that a license - landlord is able to restrict your rights as a tenant
Case to look at: National Provincial Bank v Ainsworth (1965)
In order for something to be a property it needs to be:
• Definable
• Identifiable by 3rd parties
• Capable of assumption by 3rd parties
• Some degree of permanence/stability
Numerus clausus: Hill v Tupper (1863)
Hunter v Canary Wharf (1997): when the building was constructed it interfered with television
signals. Locals sought to discover whether they had a right to enfettered television signal. It turns out
they did not have a claim.
Statutory definition of land: land includes 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 another way and other corporeal hereditaments; also a manor (lordship tithe
which used to be paid), an advowson (nomination of a member of the clergy to the local church),
and a rent
, Cuius est solum eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos everything up to the sky and down to the
centre of the earth - essentially highlighting that property is three dimensional
Star energy weald basin Ltd. V Bocardo SA [2011] 1 AC 380 - had been granted permission to extract
oil from a certain area (oil belongs to the crown), however began extracting from a neighbouring site
as well - trespass on private property
Bernstein v Skyviews & General Ltd [1978] QB 479
Facts:
• Skyviews took aerial photos of houses and offered to sell these to residents
• Lord Bernstein instead complained of invasion of privacy and requested destruction of any
negatives of his house
• Claimed that skyviews had committed the wrong of trespass by flying over his land without
permission
• However Griffiths, J dismissed the claim, finding that Skyviews had not interfered with Lord
Bernstein's property rights
• Rejected claim as it is with regard to the air space above Bernstein's property and not a
structure attached to the adjoining piece of land - has no mention of structures, and is more
closely linked to the tort of nuisance and not trespass
• Landowners rights in the air space above his property do not extend to an unlimited height -
under the Civil Aviation Act 1949 simply flying at a reasonable height above another's land
does not constitute a wrong, so while a property right unquestionably allows its holder to
assert a significant degree of control over a resource, that control must be limited - in order
to take into account the needs of others
Week 2 – title, possession and ownership
Personal property: a residual category, comprising the predominant part of English property law once the
topic of interests in land has been identified for the purposes of specialist treatment.
The final line between real and personal property:
Fixtures (attached to the land)
• Sales of land (transfers)
• Mortgages
• Property left in a will
• In leases
• Planning law
Test for fixture (something that has been placed in the land and makes up part of that land) or chattel
(personal property):
Holland v Hodgson (1872) - mill with around 400 looms but could easily be removed
Degree of annexation - was physically attached but could be easily removed (so remain a chattel)
Purpose of annexation - to stop them moving around
You must look objectively at motives (purpose) for annexation. Objects which are resting on their own weight
are prima facie chattels - no indication that they are apart of the land.
Leigh v Taylor [1902] AC (appeal cases in HofL)
Berkely v Poulett [1977] - Greek statue resting on its own weight. Argument was that statue made up part of
the land. But the court found that it was a chattel as it could easily be moved/replaced
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