Registration Flashcards
What are 3 recurring module themes that surround the Land Law module?
- Malleable concepts of property
- Market logics in land law
- Registration and its politics/morality
How does possession of land differ to registration of land?
Possession is an empirically defined fact, with the citizen telling the state who owns the land
Registration is an administrative act, a state ordered political act, with the state telling the citizen who owns the land
What were the aims of the Land Registration Act 1925?
- Address the failures of the 1875 and 1897 Acts by moving away from an over-reliance on voluntary registration
- To establish that interests can only bind future purchasers of land they have been created according to set formalities
- To facilitate transactions in the market
What defects exists in the Land Registration Act 1925?
- Considerable litigation over status of overriding interests
- Overly complex
- Gap between transfer and registration
- Issues with adverse possession
Name 4 aims of the Land Registration Act 2002
- Register should be a complete and accurate reflection of the state of title of land at any given time
- The no. of overriding interest should be reduced or abolished
- Further limits should be imposed on adverse possession
- The Act should reflect advances in modern technology
To achieve its aims, the LRA 2002 made registration compulsory on any event concerning the estate, including: (Give 3)
- The making of a gift of an unregistered estate
- The grant of a lease in excess of seven years to take effect immediately or to take effect in the future
- The creation of the protected mortgage of a qualifying estate
What effect did the duty to register under the LRA 2002 have?
- When unregistered land triggers compulsory registration, registration must take place within two months
- Failure to register within the timeframe will render the transfer void
What 6 problems surround the issue of registration?
- Complex, expert advice is needed
- Incentivises litigation
- Increases costs for landowners
- Increased incidents of fraud
- Technology Issues
- Impact on property market and wider economy
What are the two key benefits of the LRA 2002?
Supports home ownership
Supports the economy
How does registration support home ownership?
The registration system makes land easier to deal with, also makes it more valuable
- Registration under the LRA 2002 supports home ownership and the secured credit market by:
- providing state-backed registration (greater security of title)
- Limiting the scope of adverse possession
- Introducing certainty and simplicity into conveyancing
How does registration support the economy?
Increases transparency
Reduces bribery
Incentivises investment
Enables the proper assessment of tax
What is arguably the main role of registration?
Balance
Between the purchase, and those with property rights in the land
What are the 3 underlying principles of registration?
Mirror principle
Curtain principle
Insurance principle
What is the ‘crack in the mirror’?
These principles are not absolute - the LRA 2002 allows some kinds of property rights to exist “off the register”
Usually detectable by a physical inspection of the land e.g. short lease <7 years
What can be registered?
Freeholds and leaseholds
The register is organised into what 3 sections?
The Property Register
The Proprietorship Register
The Charges Register
What is contained on the land register for each item?
Geographical description of the registered estate, including a title plan edged in red - records the benefit of any legal easement created by deed in favour of the land
What information is stored on the proprietorship register?
- Name and address of the owner of the registered estate
- Any restrictions on ownership
- Class of title awarded
What information is stored on the Charges Register?
- The negative aspects of the title e.g. any mortgages on the property
- Any burden on the registered title that has been protected by an entry of notice e.g. leases, easements, freehold restrictive covenants etc.
Why does formality matter?
Why might this be particularly relevant in land law/ property rights?
What is the most effective type of formality for this purpose?
The parties may need evidence of the existence of terms of the transaction to settle disputes in the future when memories have become unreliable
Because they tend to be of longer duration than personal rights
Requiring some permanent record
Give the 4 parts of the conveyancing process
Step 0: Before Exchange
Step 1: Exchange of contracts
Step 2: Completion
Step 3: Registration
What is happening at the ‘before exchange’ stage of the conveyancing process?
- Find a property, decide you like it, agree a price
- No legal commitments made at this stage so either party free to withdraw without experiencing any negative (legal) consequences
What happens at the ‘exchange of contracts’ stage of the conveyancing process?
- This is when you commit yourself
- Deposit paid to seller
- enter contract, risk shifts to buyer, contract for sale/creation of interest in land must be in writing and signed
What happens at the ‘completion’ stage of the conveyancing process?
- Balance is paid (first to seller’s mortgagee, then leftovers to seller)
What happens at the ‘registration’ stage of the conveyancing process?
- Transfer of legal title takes place
What are the two main problems of the conveyancing process?
The registration gap
Indivisibility
What stage does the ‘registration gap’ occur at in the conveyancing process?
Between completion and registration
What stage does the ‘indivisibility’ problem occur at the conveyancing process?
Between exchange of contracts and completion
What is the proposed solution to the ‘registration gap’ problem?
Electronic conveyancing
What is adverse possession according to Pye v Graham?
Factual possession + Intention to possess (+ adverse/’without permission’)
Describe how the traditional doctrine of adverse possession works?
Stage 1: Both adverse possessor and original owner have title
Stage 2: After 12 year, the adverse possessor has title and the LA 1980 takes effect for the original owner, limiting their title
Describe how relativity of title changes in the process of adverse possession
Before the 12 year mark, the original owner has BETTER title than the adverse possessor, then after the 12 year mark, the adverse possessor has better title
What did the LRA 2002 say about adverse possession?
- After 10 years adverse possession, adverse possessor can apply to chief register to initiate AP claim, and that registration is a source of title
What is ‘squatting’?
Entering into possession of land to which you do not have (good) legal title
What was the law like around squatting pre-2002?
What new legislation changed the law around squatting from 2002-2012?
From 2012, what new introductions were made to the law around squatting?
- “Traditional” adverse possession along with the 1925 regime
- Squatters rights and the criminal law
- “Traditional” adverse possession along with the 1925 regime
- Land Registration Act 2002
- Legal aid, and the Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO)
Under the current law, what can be done where squatting displaces a residential occupier?
Can ask squatter to leave, then call the police - Criminal Law Act 1977 s7
Under the current law, what can be done to get rid of squatters where squatted premises are not occupied?
- Where damage or theft: can call police
- Where no damage/theft: evict squatter under common law
What legislation prevents the violent eviction of squatters?
s6 of the CLA 1977 prevents the violent eviction of squatters
The Land Registration Act 2002 gives adverse possessors the right to apply to be the registered proprietor after how long?
After 10 years
Describe the process by which an adverse possessor can become the registered proprietor according to the LRA 2002
- Apply to be registered proprietor after 10 years possession
- Current RP and registered charge holders notified
- If they oppose you , you will be refused
- If nobody opposes, you become RP
Give 2 criticisms of the LRA 2002
- Shift from moral failing of RP to the moral reprehensibility of trying to “get something for nothing”
- Big picture thinking replaced by moral/aesthetic condemnation of squatters as a threat to society
What did the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 do to the law around squatting?
Criminalised it
What are the 2 main limits/challenges to registration?
Limits coming from fairness/equity
Inherent limits of reasonableness of registration
Estoppel and mutuality consider what kind of fairness?
The fairness of the “bargain”/transaction, not broader social fairness/equality
What are the three requirements for estoppel?
- Assurance
- Reliance
- Detriment
What changes did Schedule 3 make to overriding interests?
- Reduces the class of potentially overriding interests and the circumstances when they’ll do so
