2 - Freehold Estate

Question 1

LPA 1925, s52(1)

Answer 1

All conveyances of legal title of land must be made by deed.

Question 2

Davies v Sweet

Answer 2

Facts: Written evidence of an oral contract includes a receipt signed by the seller in return for deposit monies.

Question 3

Bowers v Cator

Answer 3

Ratio: A buyer taking possession of the land with the consent of the seller constitutes part performance to make a pre-26th September 1989 oral contract in land enforceable.

Question 4

Broughton v Snook

Answer 4

Ratio: Making improvements on the land constitutes part performance to make a pre-26th September 1989 oral contract in land enforceable.

Question 5

LP(MP)A 1989, s2

Answer 5

Imposes three requirements for contracts in land made on or after 27th September 1989 to be valid:

1. The contract must be in writing; and
2. It must contain the expressly agreed terms; and
3. It must be signed in writing by both parites

Question 6

LP(MP)A 1989, s 2(1)

Answer 6

All the expressly agreed terms of a land contract may either be contained in one document, which is signed by both parties, or, if contracts are to be exchanged, in two documents as long as they are identical.

Question 7

LP(MP)A 1989, s 2(2)

Answer 7

Contractual terms of a land contract may be incorporated into the contractual document either by being set out in the document or by referring to some other document.

Question 8

Commission for the New Towns v Cooper (Great Britain) Ltd

Answer 8

Ratio: Written correspondence amounted to a process of offer and acceptance leading to an agreement rather than an exchange of contracts compliant with LP(MP)A 1989, s 2.

Question 9

Firstpost Homes Ltd v Johnson

Answer 9

Facts: Purchaser prepared a contract for the seller to sign, which detailed names of parties and also identified the land to be sold on the ‘enclosed plan’. Seller signed plan but not the contract document and the purchaser signed both. Court of Appeal held that the requirements of LP(MP)A 1989, s2 had not been complied with as it viewed the plan as separate from the contract. Moreover, the purchaser could not rely on the fact that the parties’ names were printed on the contract to constitute a signature for the purposes of the act.

Ratio: Typing or printing a name does not constitute a signature

Question 10

LP(MP)A 1989, s 2(5)

Answer 10

Certain contracts are exempt from the formality requirements of LP(MP)A 1989, s2:

1. A contract to grant a lease for a term which does not exceed three years, which takes effect ‘in possession’ and which is at the best rent reasonably obtainable
2. Contracts made at public auctions
3. Certain contracts regulated by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 which include an interest of some kind in land
4. The creation of resulting, implied or constructive trusts

Question 11

Yaxley v Gotts

Answer 11

Ratio: An oral agreement for an interest in land was still enforceable on the basis or a constructive trust of proprietary estoppel.

Question 12

Speciality Shops v Yorkshire and Metropolitan Estates

Answer 12

Ratio: The usual measure of damages for breach of contract is the loss suffered as a result of the breach, including the loss of the bargain.

Question 13

Cutts v Thodey

Answer 13

Ratio: If there is an estate contract, where land has been wrongly conveyed by the vendor to a third party, the third party can be joined as a defendant to the specific performance claim and be ordered to convey the land back to the purchaser.

Question 14

Scott v Southern Pacific Mortgages Ltd

Answer 14

Ratio: An estate contract for the sale of land does not give a buyer an interest in the estate, such that he can carve lesser interests out of it on behalf of third parties.

Question 15

LP(MP)A 1989, s1

Answer 15

A valid deed must be:

1. Clear on its face that it is a deed
2. Attested by a witness
3. Delivered as a deed

Question 16

LRA 2002, s 6

Answer 16

Imposes a duty to register on the occurrence of one of the triggering events specified in LRA 2002, s 4.

Question 17

LRA 2002, s 7

Answer 17

If registration of the transfer of unregistered land is not made within two months, any transfer or a grant of a legal estate in the freehold or leasehold become void. It reverts to the seller who will hold it on bare trust for the buyer.

Question 18

LRA 2002, s27(1)

Answer 18

In registered land, the legal estate remains with the seller until registration of the transfer into the buyer’s name.