Property Law Flashcards
1
Q
What two halves make up property law?
A
- personal property (tangible and intangibles) “in personam”
- real property (land and rights in land) “in rem”
2
Q
Property Law’s Relation to Construction
A
- ownership
- land boundaries
- rights over the land
3
Q
Tort of Trespass
A
- residential squatting is now a criminal offense.
- commercial squatting is normally purely a civil matter.
4
Q
Type of land ownership
A
- estates and interests in law
- co-ownership of land
- trusts in land
5
Q
Estates and interests in law
A
- Monarch’s interest: the crown owns everything. One can only acquire interest in land.
- Common land: land owned by all citizens.
- Private land: interest sufficient for good title (evidence to prove ownership).
6
Q
Co-ownership of land
A
- tenancy in common: equal shares and separable
- joint tenancy: equal shares and indivisible. Any parties that fall away, their share is absorbed by the remainder.
7
Q
Trusts in Land
A
-
8
Q
Legal interests in land
A
- easements
- rent charges
- legal mortgages
9
Q
Types of Legal Estates
A
- fee simple: freehold (absolute in possession).
- estate for years: leasehold (time limited).
10
Q
Freeholds (Fee Simple)
A
- inheritable
- no limits on ownership
- in possession confers entitlement to occupation and enjoyment of the land.
11
Q
Conditional fee simple
A
- property transfer subject to a condition
- legal estate in the land.
12
Q
Determinable fee simple
A
- time limited by condition of the transfer.
- estate in equity only.
13
Q
Proprietary Estoppel - Definition
A
- one party is assured of their future rights in land, and relies on this assurance to their detriment.
14
Q
Proprietary Estoppel - The Representation
A
- relate to present or future rights in land.
- promise must be clear and unequivocal.
- can be made in a will but claimant must prove their long term reliance.
15
Q
Proprietary Estoppel - Reliance
A
- claimant must show a change of position in reliance on the promise.
- only monetary or labour contributions count.
16
Q
Proprietary Estoppel - Detriment
A
- claimant must have been unconscionably disadvantaged by the reliance.
- must have clean hands.
17
Q
Proprietary Estoppel - Rights
A
- equitable relief
- right can be registered and can be an overriding interest.
- can be binding on third parties.
18
Q
Bare Licences
A
- licensee has no estate or interest in the land.
- only right conferred is to enter the land.
- revocable subject to notice.
19
Q
Licences coupled with interests in land
A
- right extends only to the interest granted (profit a prendre).
- not revocable as long as the proprietary interest continues.
20
Q
Easements - Definition
A
- allows a landowner the right to use the land of another.
- can be positive (requires action) or negative (no action required.
- attached to the land, not a person.
21
Q
Easements - Characteristics
A
- must be a dominant tenement (land to take the benefit) and a servient tenement (land to carry the burden).
- property must owned by different persons.
- must not deprive servient owner of all enjoyment of their property or impose a positive burden on them.
- must be capable of definition.
22
Q
Easements - Express Grant
A
- wording drafted into a deed or transfer of a legal estate.
23
Q
Easements - Implied Grant
A
- can be implied into the transfer of the legal estate.
- necessity: land must be incapable of use without it.
- common intention: necessary to carry out a shared intention
- Wheeldon v Burrows: where land is divided, where X has rights over land, upon division, the new purchaser acquires those same rights over X’s land.
24
Q
Quasi-easements
A
- Rights a landowner enjoys over his own land.
- can be converted to legal easements upon division of land via the Wheeldon v Burrons principle.
25
Easements - Prescription
- acquired by use over a long period of time.
- common law: without force, open usage, and without permission
- lost modern grant: usage < 20 years (fictional argument to assist common law rights of time immemorial).
- Prescription Act 1832: 20 yr and 40 yr periods. 40 yr period is deemed absolute and indefeasible unless there is evidence of interruption.
26
Legal Easement
- must satisfy rules for duration and method of creation.
- deed required except where acquired by prescription or where implied.
- duration must be equal to the legal estate in the land.
- can have overriding status.
27
Equitable Easement
- where the requirements for a legal easement are not satisfied.
- must be registered to be protected.
28
Transfer - Legal Easement
- benefit/burden - registered land: must be noted on title
| - burden - unregistered land: automatically binding even without registration.
29
Transfer - Equitable Easement
- unregistered land: without registering the easement (against the name of estate owner), the easement has no value (except if estoppel applies).
- registered land: benefit passes automatically but burden must be registered.
- will not be an overriding interest generally.
30
Profits a prendre
- holder has the right to take something from the land.
- can exist 'in gross' where it is granted to a person without an ownership in land.
- can be assigned and conveyed.
- can be legal or equitable but legal must comply with rules.
- for registered land, a legal profit can be an overriding interest.
31
Covenants - Definition
- obligation by deed which affects the use of land for the benefit of another.
- governed by contract (i.e. 3rd pty right) and property law.
- limited circumstances allow equity to intervene
- can be restrictive or positive.
32
Legal Covenants:
- covenantee must have a legal estate in land that can take the benefit.
-
