Enforcement of interests in unregistered land

Question 1

How are legal interests enforced in unregistered land?

Answer 1

‘legal rights bind the whole world’ (Mercer v Liverpool, St Helen’s and South Lancs Railway Co).

• will bind everyone
• no need for the legal right to be registered or any notice to be served upon anymore
• except from puisne mortgages which must be registered as a Land Charge

Question 2

How are equitable interests enforced in unregistered land? (Post - 1926)

Answer 2

Stop gap solution - majority will be protected by Land Charges (Land Charges Act (LCA) 1972)

Question 3

Which equitable interests could not be protected under the LCA 1972?

Answer 3

• Equitable easements and restrictive covenants created before 1926.
• Equitable interests under a trust that have not been overreached and therefore transferred from the land to the purchase money.
• doctrine of notice will continue to apply

Question 4

How are the Land Charges entered into the Land Charges Register?

Answer 4

• The Land Charge is entered against theNAMEof the land owner at the time the right is granted/created.
• The name to enter the Land Charge against, is the name in the title deeds, rather than the name as it may appear in other contexts.

Question 5

What is the doctrine of notice?

Answer 5

• The enforceability of certainequitable interestsin unregistered land depends on the doctrine of notice.
• Under the doctrine of notice, equitable interests would be binding on anyone except’Equity’s Darling’.

Question 6

Who is Equity’s Darling?

Answer 6

a ‘bona fide purchaser for value of a legal estate without notice’of the equitable interest.
- A buyer has to prove all of the elements if she is to take property free from any of these equitable interests which affect that property ie to be ‘equity’s darling’.
○ bona fide- means the buyer must act in good faith
○ purchaser- means any person who acquires an interest in the land otherwise than by operation of law (obtaining land upon intestacy would be an example of operation of law)
○ value- means money or money’s worth or future marriage
○ legal estate- means a freehold or leasehold estate
○ without notice -means without any of the three kinds of notice: actual, constructive or imputed notice.

Question 7

What are the ways notice can be given to a purchaser?

Answer 7

Actual/ Constructive/ Imputed

Question 8

What is actual notice?

Answer 8

The purchaser actually knows of the equitable interest.

Question 9

What is constructive notice?

Answer 9

The purchaser must act as a prudent person (s199(1)(ii)(a) LPA 1925)

• fails to pursue a line of enquiry which ought reasonably to have been made
• proper investigation

Question 10

What is imputed notice?

Answer 10

• This is notice received by the buyer’s agent, for example the solicitor on a land purchase (s199(1)(ii)(b) LPA 1925)
• Where the agent has notice, whether actual or constructive, of an interest, that knowledge is imputed to the buyer

Question 11

Can an equitable interest be revived to a subsequent buyer after an Equity’s Darling?

Answer 11

No! It will be void and cannot be revived - will be destroyed forever.