LAND LAW

Land Law

Land Law

Referring to the scenario Panjit should firstly know the following conveyancing is the legal name given to the transfer of a property from one person to another. The property can be freehold or leasehold. Most houses are freehold and most flats are leasehold. In the UK conveyancing is usually dealt with by either a conveyance solicitor or a licensed conveyance.

The conveyance solicitor or licensed conveyance acting on behalf of the buyer must ensure that he or she obtains a “good title” to the land - i.e., that the person selling the property has the right to sell it and there is nothing that would prevent the buyer from obtaining a mortgage or re-selling the property at any time in the future. Under English and Welsh law an agreement for the sale of land is not legally binding until “exchange” of contracts. This is the point where the transaction becomes legally binding. Before this both parties have the advantage of being able to withdraw from the transaction but also the disadvantage of wasted time and expense in the event that an exchange of contracts does not eventually take place. The normal practice is for the buyer to negotiate and agree a price with the seller. The buyer usually then arranges a survey and the buyer's solicitor subsequently carries out searches and pre-contract enquiries.  Secondly, a contract to transfer a legal estate in land, freehold or leasehold, or which provides an option to buy such an estate, or which provides a pre-emption right giving the recipient the right of first refusal should the contracting estate owner decide to sell, is known as an estate contract.

An estate contract is an equitable interest in land, an important property right. Because specific performance of land contracts is available (subject to any equitable bar) the contract passes an immediate equitable interest in the property. A contract to sell a legal estate effectively makes the buyer the equitable owner. By the same token, a contract to grant an easement is effective to create an equitable easement, a contract to grant a mortgage effective to create an equitable mortgage (although these are not estate contracts as such) and so on. Ownership of a legal estate gives the owner the right to physical possession of the land in which she holds that estate. In the case of unregistered land 'title' (evidence of the owner's right to property as well as the ownership right itself) is established by the sometimes complex process of investigating previous dealings in the property. In the case of registered land title is established by registration of the estate owner as proprietor on the register of title. The purchaser takes the property free of the beneficiaries' interests provided that they comply with the relevant rules (which vary according to whether the property is land or personality and, if the former, whether it is registered or unregistered). Now in the case of Bronislav who has been granted the purchase of the kitchen garden for ...