Lecture notes
Laws 2018 ; Freehold-Land - Full lecture notes
- Module
- Land Law
- Institution
- University Of Southampton (UOS)
This is a comprehensive and detailed note on freehold for Land law . Essential!!! To your success in Manchester!!
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Freehol d LandA) THE THING CALLED LAND
1) Single Esta te
a) A person’s estate = Th e sum of what they o wn/owe
Property = owning things Wealth = having th ings of value
Assets minus liabilities = wealt h
3 types of assets:
1)Land – immova ble 2)Chattels – an ything mo veable 3)Intangibles – c hoses in action – modern law meaning = things t hat don’t have a physi cal exist ence – action needs to be tak en to mo ve them. E g: shar es in c ompanies
and cop yrights b) Suc cession - history
When you die, the re are d ifferent ways of passing things on. Real p roperty/land used to go t o the e ldest son. Real repre sentative s were t hen introduced in 1897. Personal property could t hen be passed on to personal represent atives (PRs), whic h is all childr en – real pr operty was then split between them a ll equally . c) Suc cession – modern law
Laws chang ed in 1925.
A person’s esta te passes t o his personal repr esentati ves when he die s. They distribute the estat e under the dec eased’s will, or ac cording to inte stacy rules.
Bankruptcy – personal pr operty passes to trustee in ban kruptcy that deals wit h this.
2) Distinctiveness of lan d
Freehold = r eal property
a) Estate o wnership of land
Britain never ha d a revolution, s o the
law is cont inuous. Feudal tenure – land was held b y the Cr own. This f eudal system got destro yed b y Oliver Cromwe ll. Although this syste m ended a long time ag o, there is still one consequenc e: No one ex cept the C rown c an own land di rectly . Peopl e can only hold an estate in land – t hey effectively ‘borro w’ this fr om the C rown, w ho owns all t he land. Estate ow nership – land is held b y the Cr own. People own t heir estat es, but it is only an intere st in land over a particular duration. Historic ally, there wer e a range of du rations, but after 192,5, it just bec ame free holds and leaseholds .
b) R ecov erability of land
If someone tak es you r house, you ar e encour aged to l itigate. This land is r ecovera ble through t he court sys tem. If something c an be rec over able itself (in rem = the thing), it is said t o be real
Land is real
At com mon law , land is reco vera ble by real actions. Land = real p roperty .
Case la w made a mistak e. Before 1499 you could only reco ver freehold land. The mista ke made it so that lease holds could be rec over ed. Leases t hen became real property called a chattel real.
Befor e leases became real prop erty, if the land is not recover able, the only r emedy is/was damages, t hey were called personal property rathe r than real pr operty , and they w ere classed as c hatte ls. Chattels no w can be r ecovera ble as the law ch anged in 1875. There is a distinction between acceler ated r epossession (squatters and assured short holds) and normal reposses sion (other cause s with possible defence s). Posses sion – transfer of ses in – land could only be tr ansferr ed if it was done ph ysicall y. Chattels we re transf erred b y deliv ery of possession. Henry VIII changed t his – possession could t hen be transferr ed by documen t. This is wh y land law is diff erent to pr operty law . c) For mality Conveya nce = a document that transfers lan d accor ding to t he Law of Property Act 192 5. The form is c alled a deed. Y ou need a deed t o get a con veyance to tr ansfer land.
To transfer land you need to be r egistered. Titles – re gistered = nee d a transfer
Unregist ered = need a c onveyance 3) Charact eristics of land a) Capital value – land is expensi ve, the per son’s title must be c lear and re levant documents must be had depending on title (reg istered/unr egister ed)
Use and value of land can be sep arated Use value of land – having t he home is more v aluable than how mu ch it c osts. Immova bility – suitability for reg istration, fix ed neighbours, planning c ontrol, mortgag ability , boundaries (e g: walls/fenc es)
b) Fixture
Fixture – som ething permanent out on t he land that will be come part of t he land Degree of annex ation – if it is fixed, e g: nailed/cement ed, then it is a perman ent piece of the land. A fridg e is not fixed in, it can be mo ved and tak en to anot her house. A ccording to TSB Bank v Botham, a sink is a fixt ure, as r emoving it may cau se damage t o the house. Purpose of annex ation – why is it being attac hed?
Eg: nail ing something into a wall without in tending it to bec ome the landlo rd’s property . - A drystone wall is not fix ed with c ement, but it is clear that it has a r eason to be t here and
it is permanent - Hodgeson v Hollan d
- Leigh v T aylor in HoL – dispute o ver tapest ry. Wooden batons wer e needed t o be nailed to the wall so t he tapest ry could b e attached. Th ere is a degr ee of fixing, but it cl early wasn’t intended t o be part of the house. It is d ecor ative, not structural. Eliteston e v Morris – Lord Llo yd intr oduced a th ird ca tegory of annex ation. Something t hat is part and parce l of t he land itself. Doesn’t hav e to be fix ed to t he land, but it is clear ly part of the lan d. - Morris rent ed the land w ith a shack on it. If the shac k was part of t he land, then he had residential tenure. If it wa s not, it fell outside the r ent act and the land c ould be c leared. The shack di d not have foundations; it w as rest ing on the land. HoL said t hat if you tried t o move it, the whole t hing would c ollapse. It beca me part of the land be cause it was r esting on it. More ex amples of part and parce ls – -Keys – moveable but clear ly part of the land -Eaves and gutters – w hich lando wner owns t he eaves if t hey spill over into the ne xt land? Clearly t he land that t hey’re atta ched to
-Drains – run under nei ghbours land but still owned b y the person whose house they’re fr om
Houseboats – Chelsea Y acht Boat v P ope. A house boat floats, but is it part of the land? No. It floats freely and isn’t actually attache d to an ywhere.
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