Bar Part I Land Law flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Fee simple absolute in possession

The largest legal estate in land: ownership of indefinite duration, free of determinable or conditional limitation, with immediate entitlement to possession or receipt of rents and profits.

Fixture versus chattel

A fixture is an object attached to land so as to become part of it, determined by degree and purpose of annexation; a chattel remains personal property and does not pass with a conveyance of the land.

Legal interests in land

The five interests capable of subsisting at law under LPA 1925 s.1(2): easement, rentcharge, charge by way of legal mortgage, statutory charge, and certain rights of entry.

Trust of land

A trust under which land is held by trustees for beneficiaries; since TLATA 1996 all co-owned land is held on such a trust, with trustees having powers of an absolute owner.

Registered proprietor

The person whose name appears in the proprietorship register as owner of a registered estate; the register is conclusive as to their title, subject to overriding interests and rectification.

Joint tenancy

Co-ownership requiring the four unities and carrying the right of survivorship, so that on the death of one joint tenant the whole estate passes to the surviving joint tenants.

Severance of joint tenancy

Conversion of a joint tenancy into a tenancy in common, effected by written notice, alienation, mutual agreement, or a course of dealing, thereby destroying the right of survivorship.

Overreaching

The process by which a purchaser from two or more trustees converts beneficial interests behind the trust into interests in the purchase money, so that the purchaser takes free of them.

Deed requirements

A deed must be signed by the grantor, attested by a witness, and delivered; it is the instrument required to convey a legal estate in land under LPA 1925 s.52.

Doctrine of part performance

An equitable doctrine allowing an oral contract for land to be enforced where the claimant has performed acts unequivocally referable to the contract, preventing reliance on the writing requirement.

Overriding interest

An interest that binds a registered proprietor and a purchaser despite not being entered on the register, such as short leases, certain easements, and customary rights under LRA 2002 Schedule 3.

Register of title

The statutory record of a registered estate, comprising the property register, proprietorship register, and charges register, maintained by the land registry.

Lease versus licence

A lease grants exclusive possession for a certain term and creates a proprietary interest; a licence merely permits occupation and creates a personal right without proprietary effect.

Forfeiture

The landlord's right to terminate a lease and re-enter for breach of covenant, subject to statutory notice under s.146 LPA 1925 and the tenant's right to seek relief.

Legal charge by way of mortgage

The method of creating a legal mortgage over registered land under LRA 2002 s.23, giving the chargee the same remedies as a mortgagee by demise.

Equity of redemption

The mortgagor's proprietary right to redeem the mortgage on payment of principal, interest, and costs, which cannot be clogged or postponed by the mortgage terms.

Easement essentials

The four requirements from Re Ellenborough Park: a dominant and servient tenement, diversity of ownership, accommodation of the dominant land, and capability of forming the subject of a grant.

Restrictive covenant

A negative covenant over land that touches and concerns the benefited land; its burden runs in equity against successors with notice, and its benefit runs by annexation, assignment, or scheme.

Adverse possession

Occupation of land by a person without the owner's permission, involving factual possession and an intention to possess, which may lead to acquisition of title after the statutory period.

Prescription

The acquisition of an easement or profit by long, continuous, and open use as of right, under the Prescription Act 1832, lost modern grant, or common law presumption.

Compulsory purchase order

A statutory order authorising an authority to acquire land compulsorily for a public purpose, subject to confirmation after objections and the payment of compensation.

Injurious affection

Compensation for the reduction in value of land retained by an owner where part is acquired or where authorised works cause actionable harm that would otherwise be a nuisance.

Customary tenure

A system of land rights held under local custom, often communal, with use rights allocated by traditional authorities and alienable only with community consent.

Periodic tenancy

A tenancy that continues from period to period (weekly, monthly, yearly) until terminated by notice to quit expiring at the end of a period; rent is usually paid at those intervals.

Specific performance

An equitable remedy compelling performance of a contract, granted for contracts for the sale of land because damages are inadequate, subject to the court's discretion.

Proprietary estoppel

An equitable doctrine preventing a landowner from asserting strict rights where they assured the claimant of an interest, the claimant relied on that assurance to their detriment, and it would be unconscionable.

Notice on the register

An entry in the charges register protecting a third-party right, such as an easement or covenant, so that it binds a purchaser of the registered estate.

Restriction on the register

An entry controlling the circumstances in which a disposition of registered land may be registered, often used to protect beneficial interests behind a trust of land.

Break clause

A lease term allowing either party to terminate the lease early, exercisable strictly in accordance with its conditions, including valid notice and satisfaction of any preconditions.

Power of sale

A mortgagee's statutory right to sell the mortgaged property after default, exercisable once the conditions in LPA 1925 s.103 are met, with a duty to obtain the true market value.

Profit à prendre

A right to take something from another's land, such as crops, minerals, fish, or game; it may be appurtenant to land or held in gross and is capable of being a legal interest.

Lost modern grant

A common law presumption that a grant of an easement was made where there has been 20 years' continuous use as of right, even if no actual grant exists.