Land Law

STOP PRESS! Want to raise a pound for Comic Relief without doing ANYTHING? Just click here: COMIC RELIEF

The statutory provisions on formalities¹ for electronic dispositions apply to certain types of dispositions and where certain conditions are met². The approach is uniform applying equally to deeds under seal or to agreements made under hand.

The provisions apply to:

• (1)  a disposition of a registered estate or charge³;
• (2)  a disposition of an interest which is the subject of a notice in the register⁴; or
• (3)  a disposition which triggers the requirement of registration⁵,

if it is of a kind specified by rules⁶.

Read the rest

Part 8 of the Land Registration Act 2002¹ deals with electronic conveyancing. There are provisions covering the formalities of electronic dispositions², the Land Registry network³, the powers to require simultaneous registration⁴, electronic settlement⁵ and rule-making provisions⁶.

Read the rest

One of the main purposes of the Land Registration Act 2002 was to create the necessary legal framework to allow registered land conveyancing to be conducted electronically¹. Underlying the new legislation is the idea that, under the new system of electronic dealing which it seeks to create, the register² should be a complete and accurate reflection of the state of the title of the land at any given moment, so that it is thus possible to investigate title to land online with a minimum of additional enquiries and inspections.

Read the rest

[2007] Fam Law 1082, 1 December 2007. Author: John Wilson, Barrister, 1 Hare Court, © Jordan Publishing Limited 2007

If life is a game of ‘pass the parcel’, then death is when the music stops. John Donne, the erotic poet and Dean of St Paul’s, seeing death approaching, put his affairs in order. According to his friend Izaak Walton, Donne was talking up to the last minute of his life, on 31 March 1631. On falling silent, he arranged ‘his hands and body into such a posture as required not the least alteration by those that came to shroud him’. Unfortunately, most of us leave far more loose ends lying around. This is particularly the case where there are beneficial joint tenancies which, with the benefit of immortal hindsight, ought to have been severed to avoid the consequences of survivorship. It is no surprise, therefore, that a lot of the jurisprudence that has accumulated around the principles of severance should be much concerned with death.

Read the rest

Author: P J CLARKE, BCL, MA, Fellow and Tutor in Law, Jesus College, Oxford

All England Annual Review 2007

It has long been established that English law has no separate law of matrimonial property: the same principles of property law apply whether property is owned by a married couple (or by civil partners), an unmarried couple, or two or more individuals who, for whatever reasons, wish to share accommodation. Surveys have shown that more couples are cohabiting (rather than entering into a formal relationship) than has been the case in the past; and there are, of course, situations where members of a family, or, indeed, friends, may acquire a house for the benefit of more than one person. Moreover, given the recent rapid increases in house prices, there is anecdotal evidence that friends are clubbing together in order to obtain their first footing on the housing ladder.

Read the rest

Land Law and Trusts – the foreshore and the right to fish

All England Annual Review 2003

Author: P J CLARKE, BCL, MA, Barrister, Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford

The decision of the Divisional Court in Anderson v Alnwick DC [1993] 3 All ER 613 contains a very useful restatement of the law of the foreshore. The case involved the validity of a byelaw restricting the right to dig bait from the seashore; and the issue arose as to the extent of the foreshore and of the public right of sea fishing. The court held, in that context, that the foreshore extended from the medium line of high tide, ie between spring and neap tides, and the low water mark from time to time. The public right to fish included the ancillary right to take worms from the foreshore as bait; but the taking of the worms had to be directly related to an actual or intended exercise of the public right to fish.

Read the rest