#14648 - Principles Of Land Law - GDL Land Law

_______________________________________________________

Personal & Property Rights

Estates in Land

Technically all land is owned by the Crown and the doctrine of tenure means that people don’t own land, but own estates in land:

• In possession

• In remainder

• In reversion

Personal rights = pertaining to the person – extinguishes upon death

• Licences (contractual or gratuitous)

Property rights = pertaining to the physical place - runs with the land

• Estates

  • Freehold – freeholder’s life & life of heirs - fee simple absolute in possession

    • Commonhold (novel) = freehold units in a commonhold community

  • Leasehold estates: create relationship of landlord and tenant

    • Tenant/lessee/grantee of lease = exclusive possession

    • Sublease/underlease

    • For a clear term or periodic – in all cases certain – ‘time’ defined in advance

• Proprietary interests

  • Mortgages

  • Easements

  • Covenants (obligation to do or not to do something)

  • Options to purchase

  • Equitable shares of ownership (co-ownership rights)

  • Equity by estoppel (S.116 LRA 2002)

• Trespasser = no rights over the land

Tenancy at will – often follow on from an expired lease. Undetermined status (not protected by LTA 1954 so would appear to be more like a licence; however it might also be a grant of exclusive possession for a term at a rent which may be enough to give the occupier a protected tenancy)

Non-proprietary leases?

Bruton v London & Quadrant Housing Trust

Trust was granting a licence to use properties as temp. homeless accom on a weekly rental basis. C claimed he was a tenant as he wanted to enforce a covenant

Held: (HL) the grant of exclusive possession created a tenancy; though statute differentiated between different types of landlrods, it could not change the character of the property interest

Kay v Lambeth Council

Informal agreement with housing trust ‘short life’ licence. Upon the Bruton decision, Lambeth terminated the now ‘tenancy’. Kay claimed to have become a tenant of Lambeth on termination of the lease.

Held: valid non-proprietary tenancy, but it would not bind the owner of the estate

• Dixon “slight of hand” to afford would-be contractual licensee certain rights of tenants

National Provincial Bank v Ainsworth

• Lord Upjohn “I am of the opinion that the rights of husband and wife must be regarded as purely personal…the wife is asserting rights over the land of another and in respect of which she has no beneficial ownership”

• Lord Wilberforce “Before a right or an interest can be admitted into the category of property, or of a right affecting property, it must be definable, identifiable by third parties, capable in its nature of assumption by third parties, and have some degree of permanence or stability”

Scott v Southern Pacific Mortgages

Held: (SC) the claimant’s rights (Mrs Scott) were merely personal, because the person she contracted with had no interest in the land at the time of the contract – hence they could not bind the bank (Southern Pacific)

Defining Land

S.205(1)(ix) LPA 1925

• “land of any tenure, and mines and minerals, whether or not held apart from the surface, buildings and parts of buildings (whether division is horizontal, vertical or made in any way) and other corporeal hereditaments; also a manor, advowson, and a rent and other incorporeal hereditaments, and an easement, right, privilege, or any benefit in, over, or derived from land.”

Land is three-dimensional

Kelsen v Imperial Tobacco: land includes lower airspace

Bernstein v Skyviews: lower airspace is that which is necessary for the ordinary use and enjoyment of land.

• Griffiths J “balance the rights of the owner to enjoy the use of his land against the rights of the general public to take advantage of all that science now offers in the use of air space”

Anchor Brewhouse Developments v. Berkley House

• Scott J “If an adjoining owner places a structure on his (the adjoining owner's) land that overhangs his neighbour's land, he thereby takes into possession air space to which his neighbour is entitled. That, in my judgment, is trespass”.”

Wollerton and Wilson v. Richard Costain

• Stamp J if trespass does not cause harm it will still be actionable – if an injunction is refused & nominal damages awarded then it only amounts to a licence to commit the tort for nominal consideration

Fixtures

• What is the degree of annexation to the land; and

• What is the purpose of annexation?

Berkley v. Poulet

Held: a statue was not regarded as part of the land because it was not fixed down in any way

Holland v. Hodgson

Held: (obiter) a pile of stones would not be a fixture, but the same pile of stones constructed as a dry-stone wall would be part of the land

Leigh v. Taylor

Held: tapestries attached to walls were regarded as chattels rather than fixtures

Elitestone v Morris

Held: (HL) a bungalow resting on foundation blocks on land was part of the land and not a chattel. Consequently, the occupation of the tenants in the bungalow was protected. Intention only relevant as to the extent of annexation

• Lord Lloyd didn’t like the two-fold categorisation. Instead an object brought onto physical earth:

1. May remain a chattel;

2. May become part of the land itself; or

3. May be a fixture = a chattel which becomes part of the land but is removable

Compare: Chelsea Yacht & Boat Club Go Ltd Pope where a houseboat had not become part of the land but remained a chattel.

Note, however, that a tethered boat can amount to control of the river bed sufficient to make a claim in adverse possession – Port of London v Ashmore 2010

Treasure Act 1996 S.1 some items will revert to the Crown

Legal Interests

S.1 LPA 1925:

(2)The only interests or charges in or over land which are capable of subsisting or of being conveyed or created at law are—

(a)An easement, right, or privilege in or over land for an interest equivalent to an estate in fee simple absolute in possession or a term of years absolute

(b)A rentcharge in possession issuing out of or charged on land being either perpetual or for a term of years absolute

(c)A charge by way of legal mortgage;

(d) and any other similar charge on land which is not created by an instrument;

(e)Rights of entry exercisable over or in respect of a legal term of years absolute, or annexed, for any purpose, to a legal rentcharge.

(3)All other estates, interests, and charges in or over land take effect as equitable interests.

The formality used will also affect whether it is a legal or equitable right – must be...