Property Law in England and Wales

This document discusses the property law in England and Wales, focusing on contracts for sale of land and rights of ownership. It explains the requirements for a valid contract and the consequences of non-compliance. It also explores a specific case involving lease agreements and rights to use leisure facilities. The document provides an overview of the relevant laws and offers suggestions for the actions that can be taken.

ENGLAND AND WALES
PROPERTY LAW

TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUESTION A .................................................................................................................................1
Law of Property Act, 1989...........................................................................................................1
QUESTION B..................................................................................................................................6
Issue.............................................................................................................................................6
Rules............................................................................................................................................7
Application.................................................................................................................................10
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

QUESTION A
Contracts for sale of Land, law balances the need for potential and certainty for the unacceptable
hardships where there is non compliance with with section 2 of the Law of Property Act, 1989.
Law of Property Act, 1989.
Law related to Property (Provisions which are Miscellanous) Act 1989 is act of
parliament, of United Kingdom. This law is one of the most important law and has revised the
English Property Law.
Common rules of law governing form & delivery of deed is abolished and is replaced by the
requirements like
 Validity of the deed will be depending over the expression as such.
 It is signed either by individual in presence of witnesses attesting to it, else should be
attested by 2 witnesses at discretion.
 Deed is delivered either by himself or by the person who is been authorised to act on his
behalf.
Contract for sale or disposition of interests over land are required in writing, they should
incorporate all the agreed terms under single document.
Rule of laws known as judgement in the Bain vs Fothergill was abolished ( in action for
breach for contracts for the property sales as the title has been failed without the fraudulent act,
accuser can only get back the expenses and not the amount which has been invested by them.)
(Poulsom, 2017). In the land registered from Land Registration Act 2002 these action would not
be occurring longer as per title guarantee of land registry in which no frauds are contributed or
carried out by transferor or seller (Law of Property Act, 1989, 2019). Over the unregistered land
it is policy that other areas of laws recipient/ purchaser of land, are entitled with the good title,
will be given compensation as seems fit to the court, subject to the specific bindings precedent
decision without any absolute bar over the damages.
Subsequent Jurisprudence
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Execution validity under mercury
Section 1 (3) of Act provides
Instrument can only get validated as the deeds performed by one has get done the following
aspects
 hired with himself in the eyes of witness that has attested the autograph, or
 On the discretion & in the eyes of himself with the 2 witnesses who will be attesting
autograph.
b) is delivered as deed by himself or any person who has been authorised for acting on his
behalf.
In 2008 High Court of England & Wales expressed in obiter that recycling the signature pages or
page from previous drafts would be rendering agreements in obligation as invalid as deed under
Act.
Land Contracts covered under the Act
Section 2 of the act is concerned with contract related to sales or creation of legal estates
or the interest in land, and not dealing in the documents transferring such interests or estates.
Scope of such contracts are defined under under section 2.
1. The sale of contract or for the acquisition of the other piece of land could be made
implemented in writing form & even by implementing the facts and figures that
individuals have agreed to expressly under single document or under exchange of
contracts in each.
2. Terms of contract can be incorporated under document either by setting out in it or by
referencing with other document.
3. Documents that are relating to the terms of incorporated or where there is exchange of
contracts, one of the document that is integrating them should be registered by self or on
the name of every party to contract (Walsh and Fox O’Mahony, 2018).
Court of Appeal has provided for the type of agreements that will be falling either within or
outside the Act.
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Section 2 of Act deals with contacts related to the sale or creation of the interest in land,
and not with the agreements creating or transferring interests or estates. Therefore the contracts
for transferring a lease that is free in the upcoming time, contract for granting the lease related to
upcoming time, or contract for the mortgages in future, are within the scope of this section ,
provided ultimate subject matter of course is the piece of land. It is to be noted that the actual
transfers, assignment or conveyance, lease that is actual or the mortgage that is actual are not
covered under the scope of section 2 of Act.
Requirement of '' Single document is strictly applied under the section
Effects are merciless. Properly signed documents covering the amount of contract
forother disposition and sales of the interest in land will not be creating valid contract in fact if it
does not include all the terms and conditions attached with the sales or disposition that were
agreed expressly. Failure of doing so will be making the contract void
Court has also provide for the guidance for the circumstances where contracts for land may be
avoided under section.
1. Party that is seeking for the avoidance of the contract must engaged in analysing the facts
which the members have agrees upon to expressly, and which is never been find in ,
exchanged and the autograph which has been documented.
2. This does never considers merely showing that piece of land contracts forming a larger
transactions that were subject to the based on facts and figures and are absent from land
contract.
3. They have agreed expressively on terms should, if are taken by 2nd section of the Act to
given under document which is single, will be end the selling of piece of land, instead of
terms of the simultaneous contract that is taking place at same time as land contract and is
forming part of 1 commercial transaction (Graziadei and Smith, 2017).
4. Section 2(1) does never ban the members to structure a dealings, like giving of all the
assets of the firm, in a manner that sale of piece of land will be dealt under different
document apart from sale of stocks, goodwill or work in progress, unless sales of land is
dependent or conditional on the giving up the equipments.
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Proprietary Estoppel
Proprietary estoppel could not be prayed in aid for rendering the enforceability of
agreement which has been declared void by the statute. Proposition that land owner could be
stopped from the assertion that agreement will be void for the compliance requirement of section
2, is unacceptable. The assertion has been provided by the statute nothing else.
Case Laws
Francios vs F Berndes Limited (2011)
Under the above case the buyer entered into oral agreements for purchasing the land
property from agent & the terms relating to contract were recorded in the letter. Event occurred
in year 2004. Prospective buyer in 2009 raised action to claim for the compensation when
property was sold out by seller to 3rd party. Cost specified under the original document was
50000 where specified value of property was 300000. In year 2009, it was coming under region
of around 1 million. Claims related to the damages were 1.4 million inclusive of the interest
funds.
Contract form was brought under the criticism & the judgement was given that the
contract cannot be enforced and is void as provisions stated under section 2 of Act were not
complied. At first instance of court, judge appeared of being stated that document did not
identified purchaser and also was not covered under any specific obligation for purchasing
property. It was quoted by the Judges citing previous case Firstpost Homes Ltd vs Johnson
[1995] . High emphasis is been given over fact that sec 40 under Law of Property Act, 1925 is
been replaced by sec 2 of Law (Francios vs F Berndes Limited (2011), 2019). Sect 2 states
contract for selling interests in the land could be made only in written & in conformity with
provisions of sec 2 of the Act.
Over appealing court accepted the decision given by main over the first instance. It was
emphasized that document failed of containing all the evidence for essential obligations, also
including the obligation for purchasing the property.
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Reasoning of the Judge was based over literal interpretations of sec 2 of Property Act.
The Straight clause intend of elimination the reliance over extrinsic evidences for interpretation
of contract (Walsh & Fox O’Mahony, 2018). Written agreement under letter failed for
complying with the essential formalities related to contract for selling of interest in land.
Permission was also taken the prospective buyer for amendment of its claim for raising
an action for rectification or restitution. Claim related to rectification was also dismissed by the
court. Motive of providing the remedy is to correct the mistake existing in the letter, in main the
cannot be used for changing the outcome of contractual situations. Appeal was given permission
over a limited given extent which gave the permission for amending the claims for including a
auction for restitution (Dixon-Gough and Deakin, 2017). The matter appeal was to qualify by the
judge subject to purchaser satisfying courts that adequate chances of success were there in the
actions. Principle about what can be termed to amount for such claims were required to consider
carefully prior to raising the action.
In this case it could be conclude which is being involved in court has taken out the
members for the possibilities related to the so that the restitution must be claim, but also inspire
of clearly the parties should be confident about the successful outcome before an action has been
raised. Again, there is limitation of rights due to it. Clear application of the plain meaning of sec
2 by the court highlights that how it will be enforcing the legislations associated with contracts
for lands. Legal system of UK enjoys the commercial advantage because of consistency in the
approach (Layard, A., 2018).
Conclusion
It is stated that contracts could be written or oral and if the contract is written it could be
either informal or formal. Essential parts of any contract are offer, acceptance, consideration and
intention on part of parties for entering into legal arrangements. The intention of contract is
reviewed objectively under disputes, when reference is made reasonable and valid interpretation
of contractual terms. In oral contract also a binding agreements could be existing if intention of
parties have clarity to each other.
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Purchase and sales contract are subject to provisions laid down under sec 2 of Ac. There
are also several transactions that involve land requiring same formalities. It can be stated that no
compliance of section 2 will make the contract void. It is important for the agreement to have
written evidence in which all the contractual conditions related to sale of contract has been
included (Stone and Devenney, 2017). The contract will be rendered if the agreements do not
contains all the specific terms and all the related terms that were agreed expressly between the
parties.
QUESTION B
Issue
William and the Felicity Nesfield are freehold owners the Well-wood Estate in North
Lincolnshire. There is a well-wood castle within estate that has been converted into the country
club. There is a Well-wood House sitting in seven acres of the land that is surrounded by
woodlands and beyond that there is farmland of 40 acres of the estate. There is single track
behind the golf course driving opposite of castle leading from man road to farmland. Geraldine
Foster purchased lease of 99 years of House and transfer deed also included grants of right to
Geraldine.
Rights were recoded over freehold title of Castle and leasehold title of House at land
registry. Grant right includes rights for transferee, successors in the title, owners and the
occupiers from time to time. The owners and occupiers of house for using the drive for access of
house from main road and of using the existing leisure facilities at Castle'.
Geraldine used the grounds of land for providing for gardening and growing vegetables
which were sold to local businesses. Rise of popularity of Geraldine grew and he in 2010 also
purchased the lease of Farmland for 99 years for growing more produce. Geraldine used track for
accessing the Farmland from main road, but the he drive the tractor along the drive to travel
between house and Farmland where she parked the tractor. Castle in 2012 underwent renovation
and added gym and spa. Geraldine continued to use the leisure facilities old and new both.
She died in 2005 and leases were transferred to her nephew Richard Foster. He started
using the house and also continued the growing and supply of produce as followed by Geraldine.
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Richard also used the leisure facilities of and also drove the tractor along the drive for travelling
between the farm and house.
Richard complained Williams for the paying members of country club for not abiding the
dress code for golf course. William and Richard had serious arguments and instructed Richard
that he is restricted from using the leisure facilities of Castle. Williams also erected the fence to
prevent Richard to access Farmland via drive with tractor. The issue is related to the contractual
agreements and contracts entered between Geraldine and Williams. They entered into a lease for
both farmland and house along with rights of Castle. Richard wants suggestion regarding his
position and the actions that may be claimed by him.
Rules
Contract Act, 1999
Contract Acts contains all the provision related to the contact between the parties.
Contract refers to an agreement between the to or more than two parties. Legally binding
contracts are are voluntary agreement reached between parties which is enforceable under law.
Contract is part of every day life of people. Contract is a legal body of law which applies rights
& obligations of the parties under whom contract is executed (Contract Law, 1999, 2019). It
governs validity, relationship and the interpretation of agreements between 2 or more parties for
sale of products or services, provisions related to services or the exchange of ownership and
interests.
For a contract to have legal binding it is essential for having en presence of 3 elements that are
 Agreement
 Intention of creating legal relation, intention refers to legally binding relationships.
 Consideration in monetary terms.
Contracts are not required to be in written for being legally enforceable. There is only one
exception that is related to contract for sale of property and land which is must to be in written
and of containing all the agreed terms, else it will not be enforceable under law.
Enforceability of Contract requires the terms to be certain. It should be clearly apparent
to parties about what are the terms of contract (Chambers, 2018). If fundamental terms are not
settled between parties than it is possible that contract would not be amounting to contract under
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law. If terms require agreements further between parties due to uncertainty than the contacts will
not be enforceable under law.
Law of Property Act, 1925.
Law of Property Act 1925 is statute of the United Kingdom Parliament. It is forming part
of interrelated programmes of legislations introduced by Lord Chancellor Lord Birkenhead
between 1922 and 1925. Act deals mainly with the transfer of leasehold or freehold land by the
deed. LPA 1925 amended provides to the core English Land law, specifically with regards to
many aspects of the freehold land that is important consideration in itself from all other interest
in land.
The law is divided into 11 parts. Keynote policy of act is of reducing number of the legal
estates into two that is leasehold and freehold and of making the transfer of interests in land
simple and easy for buyers (Law of Property Act, 1925, 2019). Other policies are related to
regulating the mortgages and for leases for regulating mainly the assignments, and for handling
some of Lacunae, shortcomings and ambiguities in law of property.
Lease
Lease can be termed as a contractual agreement where the lessee i.e. the user of the asset
pays a fixed amount to the lessor who is the owner of the property in exchange for using that
property (Korthals Altes, 2017). The property here can be buildings, land, machinery, etc. and
there can be equipments as well. The two parties i.e. the lessor and the lessee enter into a lease
contract or agreement and decide that what will be the term of contract, the amount of lease
rental etc. there is a narrower term of rental agreement where the asset is generally a tangible
asset and is also used in those cases where the lease is generally based on a month to month
basis.
Leasehold Estate
The leasehold estate or property refers to ownership of temporary rights of holding
property or land in which tenants and lesssee hold right of the real property through some form
of title from landlord and lessor (Leasehold Estate, 2019). Also tenants hold rights for real
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property and leasehold estate is considered as personal property. Leasehold or lease agreement
can be defined as that kind of lease tenure where there is one party is the one who is buying the
ownerships rights for the property and another party is the one who is giving such rights for a
fixed time period in return of certain fee or compensation amount.
Inheritance Law
Inheritance Law under the wills and succession defines that thee is particular law related
to the transferring of movable and immovable property (Lizieri, 2018). The testator's domicile is
the major governing factor where the domicile relates to the residence of the testator. Lex Situs is
the major governing factor where the law is applicable at the location of the property. This law of
the UK property rights states that the testator might belong to a foreign domicile and therefore
the law is applicable accordingly.
Tenancy
The essence of tenancy can be defined as the relationship where there is a specific
contract between the landlord and the tenant where one person is the possessor of the property
and is referred to as the landlord or the lessor. The other party is the tenant or lessee who is given
the right of possession for a designated period of time (Korthals Altes, 2019). In return the tenant
or lessee pays a predetermined sum of money between fixed periodical intervals. This
contractual agreement can be entered on an expressed or implied basis and therefore termed as
the tenancy contract.
Case Law
The case law of Grange versus Quinn (2013) can be effectively highlighted where the
Quinn, who was landlord lived above the shop hired by Grange the tenant. When Grange was
evicted by Quinn for not keeping windows clean, she filed a case and it was concluded that the
claim was not serious enough that eviction of the tenant could be claimed against it. It was also
ruled out that the landlord had failed to give any prior eviction notice to the tenant which is
mandatory as per the section 146 of the Law of Property Act 1925 (Greller and Valentine, 2019).
This case law can be used to claim that the landlord must follow the exact procedure required to
evict a tenant effectively and the correct steps should be followed to make it legally enforceable
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and unchallengeable.
Application
The above rules and laws are related to the case given for Richard and Williams. Both
Williams and Geraldine entered into the lease agreements of 99 years for the house, farm and
right over the leisure facilities in castle. The law of property and contract law will be applied in
the present case. The estate is a leasehold estate for Geraldine under the terms of lease of 99
years. The contract laws specifies that when any contract is entered between the parties with the
intention for creating a legal relationship. Both the parties to contract are required to abide by the
law. The terms and condition associated with the contract has been clearly stated in writing under
the lease agreement (Pleace and Hunter, 2018). The Geraldine used the farmland for growing
vegetables that were supplied in the market. She used the drive for travelling between the home
and farm on tractor. The land has been used by her along with the leisure facilities of castle. The
castle contained golf course and country club for playing. According to the Contract law it is
essential to fulfil all the terms of the contract. Geraldine is using the track and farm under the
lease agreements between them along with facilities of Castle. After the death of Geraldine in
2015, all the leasehold rights were passed on to the nephew Richard Foster. She has made will
for transferring the lease title. If the will was not made the agreement would have been lapsed
after her death in absence of legal heir. Before dying she made will in which the successor was
Richard.
The restriction of Williams to use the leisure facilities of Castle by Richard is not valid. A
dispute between the lessor and lessee does not make the contract void. William also fenced the
track for travelling between the farm and house. As per Section 2 of Law of Property Act it has
been stated that at the contract of lease contained the terms for right to use the rights of leisure
facilities of castle and of tack drive for travelling between farm and house and these terms were
expressly agreed by Williams. It also contained that all the rights related to lease will be
transferred to successors in title. The law states the lease agreements can only be evicted if the
conditions are bot fulfilled. The attempt of Williams prohibiting the Richard to use the leisure
facilities of Castle and fencing track connecting farm and house is not valid.
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Conclusion
In the above case conclusions can be made the Richard can sue Williams for
contravening the contractual lease agreements. Richard has the legal right of using the castle
facilities and the drive. If Williams restrict Richard from using both it accounts to contravention
of the provisions of law. Richard can make allegations under Contract law and Law of Property
Act, 1925 and 1989(Miscellaneous provisions). Williams cannot restrict Richard using facilities
unless the terms of agreements are modified with mutual consent or the contract is breached on
non compliance with specific conditions.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Chambers, F., 2018. The Electronic Communications Code and Property Law: Practice and
Procedure. Routledge.
Dixon-Gough, R. and Deakin, M., 2017. Property Transactions in the UK: A Situation of
Institutional Stability or Technical Change?. In The Ontology and Modelling of Real
Estate Transactions (pp. 67-82). Routledge.
Graziadei, M. and Smith, L., 2017. Comparative Property Law. Global.
Greller, M.M. and Valentine, S.R., 2019. A Leasehold Approach to Corporate Social
Responsibility. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal. 31(2). pp.71-97.
Korthals Altes, W., 2017. Land pricing on extension of leases in public leasehold systems.
European Real Estate Society (ERES).
Korthals Altes, W.K., 2019. Land pricing upon the extension of leases in public leasehold
systems. Journal of European Real Estate Research. 12(1). pp.97-111.
Layard, A., 2018. 26. Property and planning law in England: facilitating and countering
gentrification. Handbook of Gentrification Studies, p.444.
Lizieri, C., 2018. Property ownership, leasehold forms and industrial change. In Industrial
Property (pp. 181-194). Routledge.
Pleace, N. and Hunter, C., 2018. Evictions in the UK: causes, consequences and management.
In Loss of Homes and Evictions across Europe. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Poulsom, M.W., 2017. S. 62 LPA 1925: restating the case for reform. International Journal of
Law in the Built Environment. 9(1). pp.79-91.
Stone, R. and Devenney, J., 2017. The modern law of contract. Routledge.
Walsh, R. and Fox O’Mahony, L., 2018. Land law, property ideologies and the British–Irish
relationship. Common Law World Review. 47(1). pp.7-34.
Walsh, R. and Fox O’Mahony, L., 2018. Land law, property ideologies and the British–Irish
relationship. Common Law World Review. 47(1). pp.7-34.
Online
Contract Law, 1999. 2019. [Online]. Available through :
<http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1999/31/pdfs/ukpga_19990031_en.pdf>.
Francios vs F Berndes Limited (2011). 2019. [Online]. Available through :
<https://shepwedd.com/knowledge/section-2-1989-act-spotlight>.
Law of Property Act, 1925. 2019. [Online]. Available through :
<http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo5/15-16/20>.
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Law of Property Act, 1989. 2019. [Online]. Available through :
<https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Law_of_Property_(Miscellaneous_Provisions)_Act_198
9>.
Law of Property Act, Section 2, 1925. 2019. [Online]. Available through :
<http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1989/34/section/2>.
Leasehold Estate. 2019. [Online]. Available through : <https://www.gov.uk/leasehold-property>.
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