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LPC Law Notes Property Law and Practice Notes

Unregistered Transactions Notes

Updated Unregistered Transactions Notes

Property Law and Practice Notes

Property Law and Practice

Approximately 490 pages

A collection of the best LPC PLP notes the director of Oxbridge Notes (an Oxford law graduate) could find after combing through dozens of LPC samples from outstanding students with the highest results in England and carefully evaluating each on accuracy, formatting, logical structure, spelling/grammar, conciseness and "wow-factor".

In short these are what we believe to be the strongest set of PLP notes available in the UK this year. This collection of notes is fully updated for recent exams, a...

The following is a more accessible plain text extract of the PDF sample above, taken from our Property Law and Practice Notes. Due to the challenges of extracting text from PDFs, it will have odd formatting:

The seller’s solicitor collates all of the title documents to be included in the epitome and examines them to insure the seller’s ownership of the property is good, and that he is entitled to sell it.

Which documents go into the epitome?

  • The conveyance to the current seller (will be at least 15 years old as still unregistered – s.44 LPA).

  • Copies of any documents referred to in the root of title (e.g. power of attorney document)

  • Copies of other documents relating to land (e.g. deeds of easement, leases affecting the land etc.)

  • Copies of legal mortgages

Documents that DON'T need to go into the epitome include documents relating to equitable interests overreached on completion, copies of expired leases, pre-root documents etc.

Investigating Title

The buyer’s aims when investigating title are to identify the extent of the property, the rights benefiting the property, ensuring the seller has good title to the property (including the right to sell), identifying the extent of other people’s rights and ensure the buyer can use the property for the intended purpose.

Use the acronym SCRAPPED to investigate title with unregistered land:

Searches

Full name of owners Period of ownership (from – to) Correct search result already provided in epitome by seller? Conveyance by owner completed within protection period? Entries?

Anyone in cover sheet of conveyance or mentioned inside.

Look for all names

All estate owners since 1926 revealed.

Get from epitome.

If not there, use the earliest/latest possible dates the property could have been sold.

Seller’s solicitor often provides old search results.

Check names spelt OK and the period of ownership correct.

If not, redo search.

If property sold before PP ends then you can rely on the searches as no more entries could have been made.

If not, redo search.

Be able to identify entry revealed in results.

D(ii) land charge restrictive covenants

W(O)B & P(A)B insolvency issues

Co-ownership

This will be an issue where two/more people buy and 1 person sells (usually a death).

  • Buying from Joint Tenants:

    • All of the joint tenants alive must execute the contract and purchase deed in order to pass the legal estate. If there is a sole surviving tenant the doctrine of survivorship applies.

    • In unregistered land the buyer is given protection by s.1 LP(Joint Tenants)A 1964 - i.e. it can assume that the tenancy hasn't been severed if the following are satisfied:

      1. The buyer has a clear bankruptcy search against all joint tenants for their period of ownership (form K15). However, the CLC search will include a bankruptcy search so just check no charges come up.

      2. There is no memorandum of severance on the conveyance

      3. In the purchase deed to the new buyer, the surviving joint tenant sells as beneficial owner or as ‘solely legally and beneficially entitled’.

Must get an official copy of death certificate

  • Buying from Tenants in Common:

    • All tenants alive must execute

    • If there is a sole surviving tenant a second trustee must be appointed to overreach any beneficial interest. Ask for official copies of a death certificate and a deed of appointment of second trustee.

Root of title

  • You must always start by finding a ‘good root’ of title.

  • Common law has deemed this to be a CONVEYANCE dated pre-1 December 1990, containing a description of the property and casting no doubt on the seller’s title (this may happen when there is a missing power of attorney when the seller/buyer executed under power of attorney).

  • It must also be by deed and validly executed/stamped (see below).

  • There must be adequate description of the property – if it is a sale of part need to see the plan!

Ad valorem, PD stamps

  • As the conveyance will be 1990 or earlier, it won’t have stamp duty attached. All conveyances should EITHER have an ad valorem stamp or a certificate of value (if consideration below 0% threshold) – (TOP RIGHT).

    • It is required where no certificate of value. A certificate of title is along the lines of “It is hereby certified that the transaction…does not form part of a larger transaction…which the amount of…exceeds fifteen thousand pounds” – it essentially means it is not open to SDLT.

    • It will look like a bunch of coins in the top right corner.

  • All conveyances should ALSO have a Particulars Delivered stamp (PD stamp) evidencing the fact the conveyance was submitted to HMRC within 30 days of completion (TOP LEFT).

A conveyance not property stamped will not have good root of title and breaks the link in the chain of title. Therefore, the buyer should ...

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