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Summary Dimensions in Land
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Property law notes summary on the topic of dimensions in land
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Dimensions in Land:Land Law and Equity:
The relationship between law and 'equity' in property law is one that we will keep coming back to
throughout the course. 'Law' and 'equity' originally developed through different courts, but came to
be administered by all courts during the 19th century. Equity refers to a particular set of remedies
and procedures. These equitable doctrines and procedures are distinguished from 'legal' ones and
equitable remedies are generally only available when a legal remedy is insufficient or inadequate in
some way. In property law, it is important to know that some rights in land may be either equitable
or ‘legal’. This does not mean that equitable rights are not enforceable or otherwise without
substance. Instead, the distinction has historically been based upon formalities required for the
creation and transfer of ‘legal’ rights. The basis of equity being ‘conscience’ rather than the formality
or technicality of the common law means that it often recognises rights which may have been
intended to be created or transferred, but which would not satisfy the requirements for ‘legal’
status.
As the system of land registration (of which more later) has taken over from unregistered land, some
of the importance in distinguishing legal and equitable rights in land has diminished to some degree.
One fundamentally important concept which is based upon the difference between equitable and
legal rights is that of the ‘trust’. You will see that this ‘device’ has developed as a way of separating
formal (legal) ownership from equitable (substantive) ownership of property. We will encounter
trusts elsewhere in the course where you will consider types of trusts, rights and duties relating to
these and their various uses in the modern world. This separation of ‘legal’ and ‘equitable’
ownership can be hard to grasp at first. Try to think about how you would want to provide a gift of a
large sum of money to a child whose parents you considered did not need it.
You might want the child to have the benefit of the money (so that others, such as the parents,
could not spend it on themselves). But would you want the child to have complete control over the
money so that they could spend it all on sweets, for example? Separating the ‘legal’ ownership (or
‘title’) to the money from the right to its ‘benefit’ might be one way of achieving this.
Conveyancing Process:
If we take a typical house sale as our example, there are five main stages in this process - sometimes
known as the 'conveyancing process':
1. Negotiation and agreement of price (mainly) and other matters
2. Investigations of title and the condition of the property
3. Preparation and “Exchange” of contracts
4. Transfer (‘conveyance’) of the legal estate (“Completion”)
5. Registration at the Land Registry
We will be exploring these stages over much of the remainder of the course. For the time being, in
your reading you should familiarise yourself with the stages in the process (though not what they
entail in any detail), with a focus on the exchange of contracts stage (which you should look at in
more depth).This process may look long and unduly complicated. Try to think about why it may be
necessary to have separate stages and whether these would be necessary for transacting other kinds
of property.
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