FREEHOLD ESTATES AND WORDS OF LIMITATION
• Re Burke’s Estate 1951
• Re McKenna 1947
TENURE:
- The terms and conditions under which you may operate your land or use it
• Historically came from owing services/ tenures to your landlord
• Feudal tenure has been abolished be the LCLRA 2009
ESTATE:
- The length of time or duration of the interest that a person possesses in land
• Concept historical –
LCLRA:
- Estate in land is retained explicitly
Newlon Housin Trust v Alsulaimen
Lord Hoffman:
- Property rights are defined by physical boundaries and the duration.
- 4 dimensional
➢ The type of estate you have determines the rights you enjoy in relation to that land
• The greater the estate, the more expansive your rights
FREEHOLD ESTATES
• Estate > duration
• Tenure > terms and conditions
• At common law, the estate were either freehold, or leasehold.
• Before the passing of the LCRLA, there were three different types.
• Fee simple, fee tail, life estate.
• Fee > derived from ‘fief’ which refers to a feudal land holding.
• Each had different variations, and each were at common law or at equity.
THE STATUTE OF QUIA EMPTORES
- Prevents tenants alienating their land to other by subinfeudation, instead requiring them to
do so by substitution.
, • Passed during reign of Edward intended to remedy land ownership disputes and consequent
financial difficulties that resulted from the decline of the feudal system
• Subinfeudation was creating new tenures of land out by sub-letting or alienating sections of
the land.
1. The fee simple
- The best interest you can have as it lasted the longest.
- Fee simple allows one to create interests are estates out of it
- Successors could inherit it
- OR could dispose of it in a will
- Could create leaseholds out of the freehold.
• Fee tails and life estates come next but are less prominent contemporarily
• You own the fee simple, but you don’t own the land.
E.G: Mary dies and does not make a will. It will then pass to her intestate successor, determinable
by law > spouse usually. Say the spouse dies and their fee simple then passes on to the next
successor. Let’s say this is a nephew. When they die, it passes on again.
• The fee simple passes forever
BUT can make a will where the property passes to her mother
• Doesn’t have to wait until she dies
• Can sell it or subinfeudate it for profit > alienability
S.11 says:
- the only legal estates in land that can be created and disposed of are the ones
mentioned:
I. fee simple absolute
- no restrictions – not subject to anything
- if someone just conveys an interest to another without subjecting them to a
contingency/ event/ restriction.
II. determinable fee simple
s.11 2.a
- a fee simple which will end automatically on the happening of a contingency
contingency?
- specified event which may or may not happen
• it stops subject to the ending of an event, but there has to be a possibility of that event not
happening
• it must be capable of lasting forever, in other words.
• Re Burke’s Estate 1951
• Re McKenna 1947
TENURE:
- The terms and conditions under which you may operate your land or use it
• Historically came from owing services/ tenures to your landlord
• Feudal tenure has been abolished be the LCLRA 2009
ESTATE:
- The length of time or duration of the interest that a person possesses in land
• Concept historical –
LCLRA:
- Estate in land is retained explicitly
Newlon Housin Trust v Alsulaimen
Lord Hoffman:
- Property rights are defined by physical boundaries and the duration.
- 4 dimensional
➢ The type of estate you have determines the rights you enjoy in relation to that land
• The greater the estate, the more expansive your rights
FREEHOLD ESTATES
• Estate > duration
• Tenure > terms and conditions
• At common law, the estate were either freehold, or leasehold.
• Before the passing of the LCRLA, there were three different types.
• Fee simple, fee tail, life estate.
• Fee > derived from ‘fief’ which refers to a feudal land holding.
• Each had different variations, and each were at common law or at equity.
THE STATUTE OF QUIA EMPTORES
- Prevents tenants alienating their land to other by subinfeudation, instead requiring them to
do so by substitution.
, • Passed during reign of Edward intended to remedy land ownership disputes and consequent
financial difficulties that resulted from the decline of the feudal system
• Subinfeudation was creating new tenures of land out by sub-letting or alienating sections of
the land.
1. The fee simple
- The best interest you can have as it lasted the longest.
- Fee simple allows one to create interests are estates out of it
- Successors could inherit it
- OR could dispose of it in a will
- Could create leaseholds out of the freehold.
• Fee tails and life estates come next but are less prominent contemporarily
• You own the fee simple, but you don’t own the land.
E.G: Mary dies and does not make a will. It will then pass to her intestate successor, determinable
by law > spouse usually. Say the spouse dies and their fee simple then passes on to the next
successor. Let’s say this is a nephew. When they die, it passes on again.
• The fee simple passes forever
BUT can make a will where the property passes to her mother
• Doesn’t have to wait until she dies
• Can sell it or subinfeudate it for profit > alienability
S.11 says:
- the only legal estates in land that can be created and disposed of are the ones
mentioned:
I. fee simple absolute
- no restrictions – not subject to anything
- if someone just conveys an interest to another without subjecting them to a
contingency/ event/ restriction.
II. determinable fee simple
s.11 2.a
- a fee simple which will end automatically on the happening of a contingency
contingency?
- specified event which may or may not happen
• it stops subject to the ending of an event, but there has to be a possibility of that event not
happening
• it must be capable of lasting forever, in other words.
