Property law
Alastair Hudson
Paul Kohler
Lucinda Pattison
Claire de Than
Anne Street
,This guide was prepared for the University of London by:
uu Alastair Hudson, LLB, LLM, PhD, NTFS, FHEA, FRSA, Head of School, Professor of Equity
& Finance Law, University of Strathclyde
uu Paul Kohler, MA (Cantab), Head of the School of Law, SOAS, University of London
uu Lucinda Pattison, LLB (Hons), PgCertHE, PgDipLP, Senior Lecturer, University of
Westminster
uu Claire de Than, BA (Hons), LLM, Senior Lecturer, City University, London
uu Anne Street, LLB (Hons), LLM, Visiting Lecturer, SOAS, University of London.
This is one of a series of module guides published by the University. We regret that
owing to pressure of work the authors are unable to enter into any correspondence
relating to, or arising from, the guide. If you have any comments on this module guide,
favourable or unfavourable, please use the form at the back of this guide.
University of London
Stewart House
32 Russell Square
London WC1B 5DN
United Kingdom
london.ac.uk
Published by: University of London
© University of London 2008. Reprinted with minor revisons 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015,
2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019
The University of London asserts copyright over all material in this module guide
except where otherwise indicated. All rights reserved. No part of this work may
be reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from
the publisher. We make every effort to respect copyright. If you think we have
inadvertently used your copyright material, please let us know.
,Property law page i
Contents
Module descriptor – Level 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
Module descriptor – Level 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1 Studying property law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 A suggested approach to study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3 The examination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.4 Three fundamental ideas every student of property law must know . . . . . 15
1.5 Some basic definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2 The 1925 reforms and unregistered land law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.1 A brief overview of the 1925 reforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.2 Reduction in the number of legal estates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.3 The unregistered title system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.4 Overreaching in the unregistered title system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.5 Introduction of a system of land charges registration in unregistered title . . 32
2.6 The doctrine of notice in unregistered title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.7 Diagrammatical summary of unregistered title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Quick quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3 Registration of title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.1 Basic features of the system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.2 Land Registration Act 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.3 The categories of interest in registered title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.4 The effect of the Land Registration Act 2002: overriding interests . . . . . . 49
3.5 Diagrammatical summary of registered title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.6 Alteration and indemnity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Quick quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
4 Settlements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4.1 Background to settlements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.2 Strict settlement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.3 Trusts of land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Quick quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5 Co-ownership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5.1 The two forms of co-ownership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
5.2 The means by which co-ownership might arise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
5.3 Distinction between joint tenancy and tenancy in common . . . . . . . . . 77
5.4 Severance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5.5 The 1925 and 1996 reforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
5.6 Rights of beneficiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Quick quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
6 Landlord and tenant: the law of leases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
6.1 The distinction between leases and licences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
, page ii University of London
6.2 General characteristics of a lease . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
6.3 Creation of a lease . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
6.4 Determination of leases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
6.5 Covenants running with the land and the reversion . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Quick quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
7 Proprietary estoppel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
7.1 Proprietary estoppel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Quick quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
8 Easements and profits à prendre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
8.1 Nature and characteristics of an easement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
8.2 Creation of easements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
8.3 Extent and extinguishment of easements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
8.4 Running with the land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
8.5 Effect of the Land Registration Act 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
8.6 Profits à prendre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Quick quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
9 Non-leasehold covenants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
9.1 Passing of the benefit and burden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
9.2 Passing of the burden at law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
9.3 Discharge and modification of restrictive covenants . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Quick quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
10 Mortgages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
10.1 Creation of mortgages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
10.2 Position of the mortgagor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
10.3 Rights of the mortgagee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
10.4 Undue influence in mortgage contracts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Quick quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
11 Adverse possession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
11.1 Unregistered land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
11.2 Registered land with 12 years’ adverse possession before 13 October 2003 . 184
11.3 Registered land under the Land Registration Act 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . 186
11.4 Unregistered land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Quick quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Feedback to activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Using feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Chapter 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Chapter 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Chapter 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Chapter 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Chapter 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Chapter 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Chapter 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Chapter 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Chapter 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Chapter 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Alastair Hudson
Paul Kohler
Lucinda Pattison
Claire de Than
Anne Street
,This guide was prepared for the University of London by:
uu Alastair Hudson, LLB, LLM, PhD, NTFS, FHEA, FRSA, Head of School, Professor of Equity
& Finance Law, University of Strathclyde
uu Paul Kohler, MA (Cantab), Head of the School of Law, SOAS, University of London
uu Lucinda Pattison, LLB (Hons), PgCertHE, PgDipLP, Senior Lecturer, University of
Westminster
uu Claire de Than, BA (Hons), LLM, Senior Lecturer, City University, London
uu Anne Street, LLB (Hons), LLM, Visiting Lecturer, SOAS, University of London.
This is one of a series of module guides published by the University. We regret that
owing to pressure of work the authors are unable to enter into any correspondence
relating to, or arising from, the guide. If you have any comments on this module guide,
favourable or unfavourable, please use the form at the back of this guide.
University of London
Stewart House
32 Russell Square
London WC1B 5DN
United Kingdom
london.ac.uk
Published by: University of London
© University of London 2008. Reprinted with minor revisons 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015,
2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019
The University of London asserts copyright over all material in this module guide
except where otherwise indicated. All rights reserved. No part of this work may
be reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from
the publisher. We make every effort to respect copyright. If you think we have
inadvertently used your copyright material, please let us know.
,Property law page i
Contents
Module descriptor – Level 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
Module descriptor – Level 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1 Studying property law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 A suggested approach to study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3 The examination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.4 Three fundamental ideas every student of property law must know . . . . . 15
1.5 Some basic definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2 The 1925 reforms and unregistered land law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.1 A brief overview of the 1925 reforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.2 Reduction in the number of legal estates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.3 The unregistered title system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.4 Overreaching in the unregistered title system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.5 Introduction of a system of land charges registration in unregistered title . . 32
2.6 The doctrine of notice in unregistered title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.7 Diagrammatical summary of unregistered title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Quick quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3 Registration of title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.1 Basic features of the system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.2 Land Registration Act 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.3 The categories of interest in registered title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.4 The effect of the Land Registration Act 2002: overriding interests . . . . . . 49
3.5 Diagrammatical summary of registered title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.6 Alteration and indemnity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Quick quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
4 Settlements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4.1 Background to settlements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.2 Strict settlement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.3 Trusts of land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Quick quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5 Co-ownership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5.1 The two forms of co-ownership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
5.2 The means by which co-ownership might arise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
5.3 Distinction between joint tenancy and tenancy in common . . . . . . . . . 77
5.4 Severance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5.5 The 1925 and 1996 reforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
5.6 Rights of beneficiaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Quick quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
6 Landlord and tenant: the law of leases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
6.1 The distinction between leases and licences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
, page ii University of London
6.2 General characteristics of a lease . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
6.3 Creation of a lease . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
6.4 Determination of leases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
6.5 Covenants running with the land and the reversion . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Quick quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
7 Proprietary estoppel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
7.1 Proprietary estoppel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Quick quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
8 Easements and profits à prendre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
8.1 Nature and characteristics of an easement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
8.2 Creation of easements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
8.3 Extent and extinguishment of easements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
8.4 Running with the land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
8.5 Effect of the Land Registration Act 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
8.6 Profits à prendre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Quick quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
9 Non-leasehold covenants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
9.1 Passing of the benefit and burden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
9.2 Passing of the burden at law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
9.3 Discharge and modification of restrictive covenants . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Quick quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
10 Mortgages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
10.1 Creation of mortgages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
10.2 Position of the mortgagor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
10.3 Rights of the mortgagee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
10.4 Undue influence in mortgage contracts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Quick quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
11 Adverse possession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
11.1 Unregistered land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
11.2 Registered land with 12 years’ adverse possession before 13 October 2003 . 184
11.3 Registered land under the Land Registration Act 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . 186
11.4 Unregistered land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Quick quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Feedback to activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Using feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Chapter 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Chapter 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Chapter 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Chapter 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Chapter 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Chapter 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Chapter 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Chapter 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Chapter 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Chapter 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
