Introduction to Land Law

1. 1066 normans invade > king holds all the land > everyone else holds land in tenure > originally a personal relationship but now there are rights close enough to saying that there is full ownership > 1918 voting no longer dependant on having property > 1917 committee set up to reform property law including land law

1. Law of Property Act 1925 (LPA)

   Annotations:

   • > covers all kind of property, but since its implementation some of the provisions it has been repealed or amended
2. Trustee Act 1925 and Administration of Estates Act 1925 (both irrelevant)
3. Settled Land Act 1925 (SLA)

   Annotations:

   •  >whereas the LPA dealt with simplier forms of land, the SLA dealt with complex, long-term family 'settlements' of land
4. Land Registration Act 1925 (LRA)

   Annotations:

   • > this was a national system of land registration: of the legal title to land: other interests in that land entered on the resitry entry for that title > it was gradually introduced
5. Land Charges Act 1925 (LCA)

   Annotations:

   • > as LCA applied to unregistered land, there needed to be a different register to register some particular interests in land

1. Land Charges Act 1972

   Annotations:

   • >replaced LCA 1925
2. Trust of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996

   Annotations:

   • >TOLATA created a single regime for trust in land replaced LPA 'trusts for sale' and SLA 1925 'settlements
3. Land Registration Act 2002

   Annotations:

   • >replaced the LRA 1925 and at this point most land was registered which made this statute very important > similar to LRA 1925 but some significant changes

Annotations:

• “205 General definitions. (1) In this Act unless the context otherwise requires, the following expressions have the meanings hereby assigned to them respectively, that is to say:— [...] (ix) ‘Land’ includes land of any tenure, and mines and minerals, whether or not held apart from the surface, buildings or parts of buildings (whether the division is horizontal, vertical or made in any other way) and other corporeal hereditaments; also a manor, an advowson, and a rent and other incorporeal hereditaments, and an easement, right, privilege, or benefit in, over, or derived from land; and ‘mines and minerals’ include any strata or seam of minerals or substances in or under any land, and powers of working and getting the same; and ‘manor’ includes a lordship, and reputed manor or lordship; and ‘hereditament’ means any real property which on an intestacy occurring before the commencement of this Act might have devolved  upon an heir”  

Annotations:

• hereditament: means any real property which on an intestacy occurring before the commencement of this Act might have devolved upon an heir corporeal: means physical >broader than land

1. The surface of the earth - but how much of it?

   Annotations:

   • Even in two dimensions there are boundary disputes
   1. Steward v Gallop [2010] EWCA Civ 823

      Annotations:

      • It's a contractual interpretation: what would the reasonable objective observer think that the seller and the buyer originally intended, in all the of the circumstances pertaining at the time the land was first sold?
   2. Norman v Sparling[2014] EWCA Civ
2. Buildings and 'fixtures'
   1. Elitestone v Morris [1997] 1 WLR 687
   2. Lictor Anstalt v Mir Steel UK Ltd [2014] EWHC 3316
   3. 1) Degree of Annexation
      1. 2) Purpose of Annexation
3. Above and below the surface
   1. Bocardo SA v Star Energy UK Onshore Ltd [2011] 1 AC 380

      Annotations:

      • for freehold land:  “cuius est solum, eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos” (‘Your land is yours up to heaven and down to hell’)   still holds relevance, but limited due to airpsace etc
   2. a) Above
      1. Bernstein v Skyviews [1978] QB 479

         Annotations:

         • Can you sue airlines?
      2.  H Waites Ltd v Hambledon Court Ltd [2014] EWHC 651 (Ch)

         Annotations:

         • Rights only up to the height as is necessary for the ordinary use and enjoyment of the land and the structures upon it >Leaseholds are easier, just interpret the lease.
   3. b) Below
      1. Some things in the land may be owned by someone other than the person with the freehold

         Annotations:

         • Common law: Crown rights to silver and gold Petroleum Act 1998: Crowns rights to petroleum and related hydrocarbons Coal Industry Act 1994:  Coal Authority rights to coal 
      2. How far do the rights go?
         1. Bocardo
         2. Fracking
      3. Leaseholds
         1. Lejonvarn v Cromwell Mansions Management Company [2011] EWHC 3838 (Ch)

Annotations:

• >proprietary rights in relation to someone else's land

1. (a) Easement (b) Mortgage (c) Restrictive covenant (d) Profit a pendre

   Annotations:

   • >restrictive covenant is the right to stop someone from doing something on their land >profit of piscary: right to catch fish on someone else's land

1. 1. Property vs contract

   Annotations:

   • a contract binds only the parties to it creating personal rights and obligations: you can assign benefits but not burdens assignment = transfer benefit = the rights burden = the obligation
   • Property = is the whole thing, the benefits, the burdens, the third party can step into the show of the original party >can get messy, so can be limited >numerus clausus: a closed list of arrangements which could be proprietary
   1. National Provincial Bank v Ainsworth [1965] 1 AC 1175

      Annotations:

      • “Before a right or an interest can be admitted into the category of property, or of a right affecting property, it must be definable, identifiable by third parties, capable in its nature of assumption by third parties and have some degree of permanence or stability.” (per Lord Wilberforce at 1247-8)
   2. Armstrong DLW GmbH v Winnington Networks [2012] EWHC 10 (Ch)

      Annotations:

      • constructive trust
2. 2. Property vs contract vs 'bare licence

   Annotations:

   • >contractual agreements in relation to land are usually called 'licences' >if it does not amount to a contract a 'bare licence' is mere permission to do what would otherwise be trespass

1. 1. Real Property
2. 2. Leases

   Annotations:

   • >real property is proprietary rights in land, apart from leases >leases remain as personal property, but a special type--a 'chattel real'
3. 3. 'Personal property'

   Annotations:

   • >proprietary rights that are not relating to land

1. 1. Before 1926
2. 2. After 1925

1. 1. Before 1926
2. 2. After 1925
   1. a) Both registered and unregistered land: 'overreaching'
   2. b) Registered land
   3. c) Unregistered land