LAW3017C Land Law Questions and Answers Online

 

Assignment Details:-

• Number of Words: 2000
• Subject Code: LAW3017C
• Subject: Land Law Assignment
• Referencing Style: OSCOLA referencing (include bibliography)

 

Are you searching for LAW3017C Land Law Assignment Questions and Answers? Assignmenthelpaus.com delivers Law Assignment Help at a reasonable price. We have experienced and well-qualified assignment writers who assist you with 100% plagiarism free work. Students can avail of our assignment writing help all around the world. Join us through our 24/7 live chat support facility.

 

 

Assessment Task

 

Read the scenario below. You should also refer to the diagram below to aid your understanding, and to the ownership timeline below the diagram.

 

‘Greenfield’ is a large plot of land near Falmouth. The freehold in the land has been owned by a number of different people since 1958:

1958 to 1988: Benesek Kernow, a local farmer.

1988 to 1993: The Office for Agriculture (a Government department).

1993 to 2014: Cadan Trelawney, a local farmer.

2014 to the present day: Hugh Boscawen, a local landowner.

 

Greenfield lies next to Rosewarne Farm, the freehold in which was inherited by Derwa Rosewarne in 1970 and which was voluntarily registered at the Land Registry in 2005. Both plots are bordered by a public road.

 

From 1958 to 1985, records show that Benesek Kernow maintained a fence around Greenfield, which he dismantled at some point between 1985 and 1988. Since 1988, Greenfield has lain unused and unfenced by its various owners.

 

In 1988, Derwa began using a route across Greenfield to access the road to Falmouth because this was quicker than using the farm’s own private access road to get there. By 1990, nearly all the farm traffic (including tractors, lorries, vans, cars, bicycles, and pedestrians) used that route at all times of year when heading in or coming from the direction of Falmouth. The route is marked by a black dotted line on the diagram below.

 

Neither the Office for Agriculture (who bought the Greenfield freehold in 1988) nor their successor, Cadan Trelawney (who bought it in 1993), took any steps to prevent this use of the route across Greenfield. They also did not give permission for its use.

 

Hugh Boscawen, who subsequently bought the freehold as an investment, was initially largely untroubled by Derwa’s use of the land. In 2015, feeling that he ought to formalize arrangements, he wrote her a letter, stating that he was ‘happy for her to carry on using Greenfield to access the road to Falmouth for now’ but that she was ‘not to use any other part of the land for any purpose’ in case it interfered with the remaining land’s value.

 

Barrington Property Company Ltd (‘BPC’) wish to buy the freehold in Greenfield and build a leisure complex on it, comprising of a building (housing a gym, swimming pool, and a café), a car park, parkland, a playground, and a nature reserve.

 

Important legislative notes:

• The Land Registration Act 2002 came into force on 13^th October 2003.
• Land held by the Office for Agriculture is subject to the following statutory provision which came into force in 1949 (you may refer to this as ‘the Statutory Provision’ in your answer):‘The Office for Agriculture shall have no power to grant legal or equitable easements over land.’

 

Instructions – please read these carefully:

• Advise BPC on the extent to which the objectives below can be achieved. You must set out the relevant law in doing so. Your advice should take the form of Counsel’s advice, addressed to your instructing solicitor (rather than to the lay client, BPC).
• In giving your advice, include any applicable formalities (and the statute/case law which gives rise to them).

 

Objectives:

1. Advise briefly on the formalities which must be observed in transferring Greenfield to BPC.

 

2. BPC intend to build the main leisure complex building on the route across Greenfield which Derwa uses to access the public road.

 

3. BPC would like Derwa to

1. 1. build and maintain a fence between Rosewarne Farm and Greenfield suitable for keeping cattle from straying, and
   2. refrain from using specific fertilizers which might harm the planned nature reserve.

 

This arrangement is to be effective as between Derwa and her successors in title and BPC and their successors in title. BPC are willing to pay Derwa for her consent to these arrangements.

 

Diagram (showing Greenfield, including BPC’s intended development, and Rosewarne Farm)

 

 

Timeline of Greenfield’s ownership

 

From	To	Freehold owner	Regulation of access to Greenfield
1958	1988	Benesek Kernow	Maintained a fence around Greenfield until some point between 1985 and 1988, when he dismantled it.
1988	1993	Office for Agriculture	Took no action in response to Derwa’s use of Greenfield.   Note that the Office operated under the following statutory provision (‘the Statutory Provision’):   ‘The Office for Agriculture shall have no power to grant legal or equitable easements over land.’
1993	2014	Cadan Trelawney	Took no action in response to Derwa’s use of Greenfield.
2014	Present day	Hugh Boscawen	Initially took no action in response to Derwa’s use of Greenfield. Wrote a letter to Derwa in 2015, stating that he was ‘happy for her to carry on using Greenfield to access the road to Falmouth for now’ but that she was ‘not to use any other part of the land for any purpose.’

 

Resources

 

You may find some or all of the following resources useful:

 

• This Padlet, on which you can see questions already asked by other students and where you can ask your own.

 

• On the acquisition of easements by prescription generally: Kevin Gray & Susan Francis Gray, Land Law (7th edn, OUP 2011) 5-040 to 5-050.

 

• On acquisition of easements by prescription generally: Practical Law Property, ‘Easements: Creation’ (the section entitled ‘Prescription’ only; not all of this will be relevant) <https://uk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com/Document/Idfa75ed3e25211e398db8b09b4f043e0/View/FullText.html#co_anchor_a727227>.

 

• On user as of right as an aspect of prescriptive acquisition: Lexis+ UK, ‘Acquisition of Easements by Long Use’ (only the section entitled ‘User as of right’; note that this applies to all grounds of prescriptive acquisition) <https://plus.lexis.com/api/permalink/333243b7-e8f6-4cfe-b2f8-d3c5dae7463d/?context=1001073>. Make sure that you sign in to Lexis before you access this link; it may not work, otherwise.

 

• On the prescription period: Bakewell Management Ltd v Brandwood and Others [2004] 2 AC 519 [27]-[29].

 

• On the registration of easements acquired by prescription: HM Land Registry, ‘Practice Guide 52: Easements Claimed by Prescription’ (sections 2 and 3 only)
  <https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/easements-claimed-by-prescription/practice-guide-52-easements-claimed-by-prescription>.

 

• On interference with easements (in the form of rights of way): Practical Law Property, ‘Interference with a Right of Way – Does an Alternative Route Make a Difference?’ <https://uk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com/5-385-8930>.

 

For REF… Use: #getanswers2002503