Property Law

Question 1

What two halves make up property law?

Answer 1

• personal property (tangible and intangibles) “in personam”

- real property (land and rights in land) “in rem”

Question 2

Property Law’s Relation to Construction

Answer 2

• ownership
• land boundaries
• rights over the land

Question 3

Tort of Trespass

Answer 3

• residential squatting is now a criminal offense.

- commercial squatting is normally purely a civil matter.

Question 4

Type of land ownership

Answer 4

• estates and interests in law
• co-ownership of land
• trusts in land

Question 5

Estates and interests in law

Answer 5

• 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).

Question 6

Co-ownership of land

Answer 6

• 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.

Question 7

Trusts in Land

Answer 7

-

Question 8

Legal interests in land

Answer 8

• easements
• rent charges
• legal mortgages

Question 9

Types of Legal Estates

Answer 9

• fee simple: freehold (absolute in possession).

- estate for years: leasehold (time limited).

Question 10

Freeholds (Fee Simple)

Answer 10

• inheritable
• no limits on ownership
• in possession confers entitlement to occupation and enjoyment of the land.

Question 11

Conditional fee simple

Answer 11

• property transfer subject to a condition

- legal estate in the land.

Question 12

Determinable fee simple

Answer 12

• time limited by condition of the transfer.

- estate in equity only.

Question 13

Proprietary Estoppel - Definition

Answer 13

• one party is assured of their future rights in land, and relies on this assurance to their detriment.

Question 14

Proprietary Estoppel - The Representation

Answer 14

• 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.

Question 15

Proprietary Estoppel - Reliance

Answer 15

• claimant must show a change of position in reliance on the promise.
• only monetary or labour contributions count.

Question 16

Proprietary Estoppel - Detriment

Answer 16

• claimant must have been unconscionably disadvantaged by the reliance.
• must have clean hands.

Question 17

Proprietary Estoppel - Rights

Answer 17

• equitable relief
• right can be registered and can be an overriding interest.
• can be binding on third parties.

Question 18

Bare Licences

Answer 18

• licensee has no estate or interest in the land.
• only right conferred is to enter the land.
• revocable subject to notice.

Question 19

Licences coupled with interests in land

Answer 19

• right extends only to the interest granted (profit a prendre).
• not revocable as long as the proprietary interest continues.

Question 20

Easements - Definition

Answer 20

• 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.

Question 21

Easements - Characteristics

Answer 21

• 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.

Question 22

Easements - Express Grant

Answer 22

• wording drafted into a deed or transfer of a legal estate.

Question 23

Easements - Implied Grant

Answer 23

• 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.

Question 24

Quasi-easements

Answer 24

• Rights a landowner enjoys over his own land.

- can be converted to legal easements upon division of land via the Wheeldon v Burrons principle.

Question 25

Easements - Prescription

Answer 25

• 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.

Question 26

Legal Easement

Answer 26

• 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.

Question 27

Equitable Easement

Answer 27

• where the requirements for a legal easement are not satisfied.
• must be registered to be protected.

Question 28

Transfer - Legal Easement

Answer 28

• benefit/burden - registered land: must be noted on title

- burden - unregistered land: automatically binding even without registration.

Question 29

Transfer - Equitable Easement

Answer 29

• 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.

Question 30

Profits a prendre

Answer 30

• 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.

Question 31

Covenants - Definition

Answer 31

• 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.

Question 32

Legal Covenants:

Answer 32

• ## covenantee must have a legal estate in land that can take the benefit.