land law

Question 1

What is an interest in land?

Answer 1

A proprietary right of a more limited use

Question 2

What is a proprietary right?

Answer 2

It is seen as a burden on the land.

Question 3

What are examples of legal interests?

Answer 3

Mortgages, easements granted for a term equivalent to a freehold or leasehold estate, rights of entry

Question 4

What are examples of equitable interests?

Answer 4

Freehold covenants, estate contracts, interests in a trust of land, easements granted for an uncertain term.

Question 5

What is a mortgage defined as?

Answer 5

A mortgage is a bundle of rights granted over property in exchange for a loan of money. These rights include the right to possess and sell the land in the event of default in the mortgage repayments. (it is the borrower who grants the mortgage, NOT the lender)

Question 6

What is the definition of an easement?

Answer 6

A proprietary right to use land which belongs to somebody else. The use is more limited than an exclusive right to occupy or use.

Question 7

How long should an easement be granted for?

Answer 7

Must be granted for a term equivalent to one of the legal estates (eg, like the freehold or for a certain period like a lease)

Question 8

What is a forfeiture clause?

Answer 8

A right of entry in a lease

Question 9

What is a right of entry?

Answer 9

Is a legal interest in the land and is either: a right for a landlord to re-enter leased premise and end of the leasehold estate or a rent charge owner’s right to hold the land if money owed is not paid

Question 10

What is a covenant?

Answer 10

It is a promise

Question 11

What is a restrictive covenant?

Answer 11

These are negative in nature, they prevent a land owner from doing something on their land. It is not a recongised legal interest in the land. [it is an equitable interest in the land.]

Question 12

What is an estate contract?

Answer 12

A contractual right to a legal estate, whether freehold or leasehold

Question 13

What are the two types of trust you can have on land?

Answer 13

Express trust and implied trust.

Question 14

What are the two key reasons for why we need to distinct between legal and equitable interests?

Answer 14

The remedies available to them are different and enforcement.

Question 15

What type of right is an easement?

Answer 15

A proprietary right to use the land which belongs to someone else. Use is more limited than an exclusive right to occupy or use

Question 16

What is the person who receives the benefit of an easement called?

Answer 16

Dominant tenement

Question 17

What is the person who grants the easement called?

Answer 17

Servient tenement

Question 18

When is an easement legal?

Answer 18

Capable of being a legal interest in land if it fulfils the requirements as to duration.

Question 19

When is an easement equitable?

Answer 19

If an easement is not granted for the equivalent of a freehold or leasehold estate, it can only be equitable.

Question 20

What is a positive easement?

Answer 20

Allow the holder to use the servient land of another in a particular way

Question 21

What is a negative easement?

Answer 21

Prevent the servient landowner from doing something on their land by giving the dominant landowner a right to receive something (these are rare though). Don’t need to enter the servient landowner’s land.

Question 22

What is a reservation?

Answer 22

It is construed against the person reserving it, because they are in a position to reserve exactly what is required and are assumed to have done so.

Question 23

How can implied easements arise?

Answer 23

Through prescription (where it has been used for at least 20 years), effectively written into the document from which it was originally omitted,