BPP University College Of Professional Studies Limited (BPP)
Notes on Property Law & Practice for the LPC at BPP University. These revision notes summarise key SGS course content in a way that is easy to understand and helped me achieve 95% on the PLP exam.
BPP University College Of Professional Studies Limited (BPP)
Legal Practice Course
Property Law and Practice
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BPP LPC – Property Law & Practice Exam Notes
Exam Drafting: A contract, TR1 or a leasehold repair clause.
Exam Technique
1. Identify the issue
2. Explain why it is an issue to the client on the facts of the scenario – explain the law
3. Offer practical and commercial advice/solutions.
Buyer’s solicitor must consider:
- The seller’s right to sell the property;
- Whether the property benefits from any rights (e.g. a right of way over someone else’s land
to access the property);
- Whether the property is subject to any third-party rights (e.g. a third party’s right of way over
the property or a restrictive covenant which binds the property); and
- Whether the buyer will be able to use the property for its intended purpose.
Stamp Taxes in Property Transactions
Stamp Duty Land Tax
- The purchaser in a land transaction has 14 days from the “effective date” of the transaction
(which is often the completion date) to submit the Land Transaction Return together with the
amount of SDLT payable to HMRC.
- SDLT is charged on the consideration in money or money’s worth given by the purchaser in a
land transaction.
- The effective date is the earlier of the substantial performance of the contract or completion
of the transaction – substantial performance occurs where either the purchaser takes
possession or pays 90% of the consideration.
- Interest is chargeable on unpaid SDLT.
Calculation of SDLT for non-residential and mixed-use properties:
, PART 1 – Registered Property – Title Investigation
Official copies of the register:
- Property Register: Describes the extent of the property and rights benefitting the property.
- Proprietorship Register: Gives the class of title, the owner’s name and address and entries
restricting the owner’s right of disposal. Sets out any indemnity covenant given by the
proprietor.
- Charges Register: lists third-party rights burdening the property (e.g. mortgages, positive and
restrictive covenants, leases or the burden of easements).
Property Register
Right of Way
- The most common form of easement you will see benefitting a property is a right of way.
- If a property is set back from the public highway, it will require a right of way over someone
else’s land to access the property.
- Where a right of way is included in the Property Register, the buyer’s solicitor must consider
the following:
1. Adequacy:
o The buyer’s solicitor needs to make sure that the buyer will be able to use the access
freely and as necessary for its proposed plans for the property.
o Includes both legal adequacy (e.g. restrictions on time of day, means of access with
vehicles) and physical adequacy (e.g. width, load-bearing construction). Advise client
to take advice from surveyor.
o If the right of way is inadequate the buyer will need to seek to alter the easement
through a deed of variation before exchanging contracts. However, the owner of the
burdened land may refuse or require payment.
o Highways Search – Does the right of way abut the public highway?
2. Maintenance:
o Whether expressly set out in the extracted right in the Property Register or not, the
buyer will have an obligation to contribute towards maintenance costs associated
with the right of way as a matter of common law.
o The owner of the burdened land may never have asked for payment but the obligation
to pay will be on the buyer if the owner of the burdened land ever asks.
o Given this is a potential cost to the buyer, enquiries must be raised of the seller’s
solicitor to ask whether seller has been asked to contribute towards the costs of
maintenance of private road and, if so, how much has been contributed and how
often. Ask owner of burdened land whether works planned for future and likely cost.
3. Adoption:
o The buyer must be advised of the potential future costs of “adoption” of roadways.
o The right of a local authority to call for private roads over which the property has a
right of way to be brought under local authority control.
o The considerable cost of putting the road in a suitable standard of repair prior to
adoption as a public highway is borne by the owners of properties fronting onto the
road – the frontagers.
o The CON29 search carried out with the local authority will reveal any current plans for
adoption of any privately owned roads which have been searched against.
o Always a risk in the future.
, 4. Registration:
o The benefit of the right is registered in the Property Register of the benefitting
(dominant) land, but the buyer’s solicitor also needs to check that the burden of the
right of way is registered over the burdened (servient land) to ensure that the right is
enforceable.
o Check whether the burdened land is registered by carrying out a search of the index
map (SIM) and, if registered, checking the Charges Register in the official copy of the
burdened land’s title. If not there, get registered before completion. Special condition
requiring seller to do so.
o If the burdened land is unregistered, a caution against first registration would need to
be entered against the burdened land.
Rights to lay pipes for water and sewage
Rights of light
Excluded Rights
- Some rights can be excluded from the Property Register e.g. where a previous seller retained
the right to fish or hunt on the property or to extract mines and minerals from the ground
under the property.
- Simply report to the buyer in case it affects the buyer’s proposed use of the land.
Proprietorship Register
Sale by a Company – Registered Proprietor
- The company must sign the contract and execute the purchase deed.
- Proprietorship Register should contain the registered proprietor’s company number – may
have changed their corporate name.
- Essential for buyer’s solicitor to carry out a company search at Companies House on a
company seller prior to exchange of contracts. The search is against the registered
proprietor’s company number and will ascertain the correct and current name and address of
the registered proprietor, to ensure that this matches with the company purporting to sell the
property.
- Additionally, the company search will check that the company has been registered and still
exists and the company is not subject to winding up proceedings.
Joint/Co-Owners
- Where the property is owned by more than one owner, the beneficial interest may be held
either as joint tenants or tenants in common.
- Relevant where one of the joint owners has died.
o If the joint owners owned the property as beneficial joint tenants and one of the joint
owners dies, then the deceased’s legal and beneficial interest in the property will pass
automatically to the survivor.
o If the joint owners owned the property as beneficial tenants in common and one of
the joint owners dies, the deceased’s beneficial interest in the property will pass via
the deceased’s will or according to the rules of intestacy.
- If there is more than one registered proprietor but no restriction on the Proprietorship
Register, then the joint owners hold the beneficial interest in the property as joint tenants.
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