What is Land?

Question 1

Proprietary Rights

Answer 1

Generally only the owner of property has these, but non-owners of land can have proprietary rights

Enforceable ‘in rem’ and against 3rd parties

Question 2

Personal Rights

Answer 2

Enforceable only ‘in personal’, never enforceable against 3rd parties

Question 3

Interests

Answer 3

Easements
Mortgages
Restrictive covenants 
Estate contracts
Beneficiaries' interests under a trust of land

Question 4

Ss1(1-3) LPA 1925

Answer 4

‘List’ of proprietary rights existing as estates or interests

Question 5

Land definition

Answer 5

Includes physical land, buildings, and fixtures (corporeal hereditaments), and rights over the land (incorporeal hereditaments) (s205(1)(ix) LPA 1925)

Question 6

Grigsby v Melville

Answer 6

Neighbour’s cellar ran below Grigsby’s house; Grigsby was granted an injunction to prevent the defendant from trespassing by using the cellar

Question 7

Bernstein v Skyviews

Answer 7

Land only extends to the lower airspace; plane photographing claimant’s estate was not trespassing

Question 8

Kelsen v Imperial Tobacco

Answer 8

An advertising sign projected into the claimant’s airspace by a few inches, claimant granted injunction to remove it

Question 9

Lemmon v Webb

Answer 9

The owner is entitled, without notice, to lop off intruding branches, but must do so from his own land and return them

Question 10

Ellis v Loftus Iron

Answer 10

No matter how minor, all intrusions onto land/airspace are trespass, which in this case included a horse biting a mare through a fence

Question 11

s1 Treasure Act 1996

Answer 11

If object defined as treasure then it belongs to the Crown

Question 12

Moffat v Kazana

Answer 12

Property is not abandoned merely because it is forgotten about

Question 13

Waverly BC v Fletcher

Answer 13

If the object is not treasure trove but is attached to the land or is under the service, it is a part of the land and can be claimed by the landowner

Question 14

Parker v BA Board

Answer 14

Where original owner can’t be traced, property is not treasure trove and is unattached to the land, as a general rule it can be claimed by the finder, unless there is an employer/employee relationship or prior to the item being found, the landowner has manifested an intention to exercise control over things found on his land

Question 15

Fixture

Answer 15

Anything attached to the land is a part of the land

Question 16

Chattel

Answer 16

Goods and things that are not fixtures or part of the land

Question 17

Holland v Hodgson

Answer 17

Two tests for determining if something is a fixture

1. Degree of annexation test
2. Purpose of annexation test

Question 18

Degree of Annexation Test

Answer 18

Creates a presumption that if something is fixed/attached/bolted to the building it is a fixture; if it is moveable or resting on its own weight it is a chattel

Question 19

Purpose of Annexation Test

Answer 19

Was the chattel put there to make the use of the chattel more convenient, or was it put there to improve the property?
(Hamp v Bygrave) (Leigh v Taylor) (Botham v TSB Bank)