These are the notes that I used to revise for my Land Law exam, in which I scored a good First Class mark. They are condensed and structured to make answering problem questions particularly easy, giving a brief outline to all the key cases and legislation in this area.
Types of co-ownership
- Joint tenancy (joint tenants)
- Tenancy in common (tenants in common)
Joint Tenancy
- Bot co-owners entitled to whole of the land. No shares.
- ‘Right of survivorship’
- Only can be joint tenancy if ‘four unities’ are present.
The Four Unities
- 1. Unity of possession
- 2. Unity of interest
- 3. Unity of title
- 4. Unity of time
UNITY OF POSSESSION
- All of joint tenants must be equally entitled to possess whole of co-owned land.
- One joint tenant cannot exclude another from any part of land.
o Eg cannot claim a bedroom as own.
- UOP will be displaced in some circumstances such as OUSTER ORDER.
UNITY OF INTEREST
- Each tenant must have same interest in extent, nature and duration of the land.
o Eg cannot be joint tenancy between one person who has freehold interest and one with
leasehold.
- Once property owned as joint tenancy at law, any dealings in title must be with agreement of all joint
owners.
o Eg sale or mortgage.
o If one tries to mortgage their share may affect their share at equity but not at law.
UNITY OF TITLE
- Joint tenants must derive their title to the land from the same document or alternatively where they have
acquired title under adverse possession.
o Eg one conveyance upon purchase which all will sign, rather than four separate documents.
- If acquired through adverse possession (Where the land is unregistered or where the land is registered
but the trespasser notched up 12 years adverse possession before 13 October 2003, when the Land
Registration Act 2002 came into force, one set of rules will apply). Must have lived there for 12 years.
UNITY OF TIME
- Interests of all the joint tenants must vest at the same time.
o Eg can’t be to me for lifetime then to my kids.
Survivorship
- Principle only operates between joint tenants.
- On death of any joint tenant, whole estate is left to other tenants. Gray & Gray 2009: ‘Winner takes all’.
- Joint tenant cannot leave any interest in land in a will or through rules of intestacy-
o Since don’t own anything, its collective. Part of will wouldn’t take effect.
DOCTRINE OF SURVIVORSHIP IN PRACTICE
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