Hello! These notes are a complete review of the SQE1 course from the University of Law. They contain everything you need to know to pass. I successfully completed both SQE1 and SQE2 both times and I attribute it to these notes which were incredibly effective when reviewing prior to the exams.
Land Law Exam Review
Registration and Acquisition
Revision
Themes
o The rise of formality to create greater clarity and faith in the system
o The simplification of the conveyancing process and increased use of technology
o Priority battles and limiting the scope of overriding interests
o Collision between the logics/morality of land law and the logics/morality of criminal law
in the context of adverse possession
o Ongoing (albeit reduced) significance of being in actual occupation
Rise of formality
o Land Registration Act 2002
Moved towards ‘title by registration’, producing ownership and not just
reflecting it
Mandated compulsory registration upon the occurrence of certain
events, which must then take place within 2 months
Aimed to reduce or abolish the number of overriding interests
To put further limits on adverse possession
Paved the way for e-conveyancing
Clear title facilitates trade and reduces resource wasting conflict
o Importance of formality
A record of objective information
Allows for planning and predictability
Prevention of fraud
Improve marketability
Land Registry
o Registration is basically a means of proving interest in Land via record-keeping (via the
Land Registry)
o Historical understanding of land registry:
Ownership due to physical possession
Feudal practice of Sesin
A person who is in actual possession of land is entitled to remain in peaceful
enjoyment of the property without disturbance by anyone except a person with
a better right to possession
Conveyancing process
o Marketability is a main goal of land registration legislation
Marketability aims to reduce costs and barriers to buying and selling
Registration reduced transaction costs (no more need for time consuming Deed
searches)
Allows for a wider diffusion of home ownership in the broader society (larger
base of market activities)
o Step 1: contract
, Creation of a legally binding agreement
Formalities: pursuant to the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act
1989 S. 2 a contract for the sale of land must: be in writing, incorporate all the
terms the Parties have expressly agreed
Scope of applicability: applies to all contracts for the creation or transfer of an
interest in land, applies to the modification of any such contract, does not apply
to contract where land transfer is in effect but not the purpose
Exceptions to formalities: rectification (a Court may order the production of a
valid contract document), proprietary estoppel (even in the absence of a
contract, a Court may order a transfer to prevent injustice)
o Step 2: completion of transfer or conveyance
Obligations agreed in the contract executed by buyer and seller (buyer to tender
payment to seller, seller to create or transfer the property interest to the buyer)
The deed: the document confirming an interest in land needs to be signed and
attested per the requirements of the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions)
Act 1989, S. 1
o Step 3: registration
Its completion confers title (not the deed)
Governed under the 2002 Land Registration
The registration gap
Title by registration
o Idea that registration is what confers title
o Limits to this: adverse possession, overriding interests
o One argument for registration is that the State is willing to protect our rights
o Illustration of how land law which is considered primarily private law also has a major
implication for public law
o Principle of nemo dat quod non habet: no one can give what they do not have
The purchase of a possession from someone who has no ownership right to it
also denies the purchaser any ownership title important because title aka
rights to a property do not only follow possession
Adverse possession
o Ability to acquire title to land simply by using it
Use must be open, actual, continuous, hostile (but not forceful) and for a long
enough amount of time
Nec Vi, Nec Clam, Nec Precario – without force, without stealth, without
permission
o Criteria for adverse possession: actual possession + intention to possess = adverse
possession
o Criticisms of adverse possession
A wrong should not ultimately give rise to a right
One should not be able to acquire something for nothing (those who lose
property due to adverse possession uncompensated)
Creates too much uncertainty within the system of ownership
o Changes due to the Land Registration Act 2002
, Sched. 6 in bringing an adverse possession claim for registered land, an
application can be made to the registry after 10 years
Then, registered owner is notified and has 2 years to reclaim the property
Now, acquiring title via adverse possession is much harder
Exceptions (sched 6 para 5): equity by estoppel
Some other reason entitled to be registered (agreed to buy the land,
have contract to buy but no other formalities)
Boundary and reasonable belief (ex. reasonably believe that it was their
land all along)
Sched 6 para 9: upholds the idea that possession is the root of title
Overriding interests what overriding interests are under LRA 2002
o Sched 3, Para 1 Leases: a leasehold estate in land granted for a term not exceeding
seven years, except for…future /social housing
Covers most residential leases and some commercial leases
Differs from the 1925 LRA by reducing 21 years to 7 years
o Sched 3, Para 5 Actual occupation: an interest belonging at the time of the disposition to
a person in actual occupation, except for:
An interest of a person of whom inquiry was made before the disposition and
who failed to disclose the right when he could reasonably have
An interest, 1) which belongs to a person whose occupation would not have
been obvious on a reasonably careful inspection of the land at the time of the
disposition, and 2) of which the person to whom the disposition is made does
not have actual knowledge at that time
o Sched 3, Para 3 Easements: legal easement or profit a prendre which is not registered
and at the time of the disposition 1) is not with the actual knowledge, 2) would not have
been obvious on a reasonably careful inspection, 3) has been exercised in the period of
one year
Express easements do not count, equitable easements removed from 1925
regime
Implied and prescriptive easements both count
Questions of priority
o
o LRA 2002
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