Land Law and Conveyancing
Estates, interests and priority
Understand the estates that can exist (freehold/fee simple, leasehold, life interests) and the distinction between legal and equitable interests. Learn how title is investigated in both systems: registered title, where the register is conclusive subject to overriding interests and cautions/inhibitions, and unregistered title, where a chain of title deeds and a good root of title must be proved. Cover priority between competing interests, overreaching, co-ownership (joint tenancy with survivorship versus tenancy in common, and severance), easements and profits, freehold covenants, mortgages and family home protections.
The conveyancing transaction
Sequence the file: instructions and conflict check → contract/memorial of agreement and deposit → pre-contract enquiries and searches → investigation of title → requisitions on title → execution of transfer/deed → completion and closing → stamping → registration → post-completion letters and reporting to the client and lender.
Traps
- Confusing registration of title with registration of deeds.
- Forgetting a spouse's or cohabitant's consent to a mortgage or sale.
- Treating the contract as transferring ownership - it does not; the deed or registration does.
- Ignoring whether the buyer or seller bears risk between contract and completion.
Rule of thumb: start every title question with the register (or the deeds), then ask what interest is claimed, whether it is legal or equitable, and whether it is protected on the register.