This glossary is an explanation in layman’s terms of some of the terminology and concepts used in land law. It is based largely on the everyday problems of the people who have needed to consult this web site, but it also gives an insight into new land law. It is neither a comprehensive nor an authoritative dictionary on land law.

This page is still under construction and will be added to.

Abandonment of easement

An owner of a servient tenement may try to claim that an easement has been extinguished because the dominant tenement has abandoned the easement. Usually, lack of use does not amount to abandonment and the right to use the easement will remain even if it has not been used for a very long time.

To claim abandonment, the servient tenement must show that the owner of the dominant tenement has done something that positively signifies his abandonment of the easement. For example, if a dominant owner bricks up a gateway, or blocks off the gateway by building a house extension across it, so as to prevent its own access onto a footpath or drive over which he enjoys a right of way, then the servient owner might assume that the right of way has been abandoned. The servient owner might then be able to act as if the right of way had been extinguished, for example, by planting across the right of way or by building an extension across it.

See also extinguishment of easement.

Abstract of title

An abridged summary of the title deeds provided (for unregistered land) by the vendor's solicitor to an intending purchaser.

Accommodation Road

A road that is not a public highway but which was built for the benefit of the residential properties that are served by the road. In such cases it is assumed that each affected property has a private right of way along the road even though the right of way is not expressed in any conveyance affecting the property.

Ad medium filum acquae / viae

To the centre of the river / road.

Adverse possession

Adverse possession has been used historically as a means of bringing waste land into economic use. In England and Wales anyone who persevered for a long period in farming otherwise unused land, so helping to feed a hungry nation, was rewarded with recognition of his title to the land regardless of whether or not someone else actually owned the land. In the colonies the mistaken belief that no-one owned the land facilitated the settling and development of the land by squatters who were likewise rewarded with title to the land they occupied.

In more recent times the concept of adverse possession has been used to cater for garden fences that migrate gradually over the years as replacement fences fail to occupy the exact positions of their predecessors. It has also been used by some landowners to legitimise what can only be described (in layman's - but not in legal - terms) as their theft of other people’s land.

Prior to the Land Registration Act 2002, a squatter wishing to claim ownership of land by adverse possession would have to:

- be in actual possession of the land,

- enclose the land so as to keep out the world at large and the rightful owner in particular, thereby enjoying exclusive use of the land,

- act with the intention of being the owner,

- hold himself out to be the owner,

- cultivate the land,

- satisfy the 12 year qualifying period laid down in the Limitation Act 1980.

The above still applies in the case of a squatter seeking to adversely possess unregistered land.

Under the Land Registration Act 2002, possessory title to registered land can be obtained only by application to Land Registry – mere possession is insufficient. The qualifying period under the Limitation Act no longer applies, but the squatter must have been in possession of the land for at least 10 years and the land must have been registered for at least 1 year. Land Registry will notify the application to the registered owner, who has 65 working days (three months) in which to respond. If the registered owner wishes to retain his title to the land then he must serve a counter notice, following which he must evict the squatter. Eviction can be achieved by negotiation, by persuasion (perhaps not so gentle), or by the registered owner taking the squatter to court in an attempt to defeat his adverse possession claim. If the squatter is still in possession of the land two years after his application, then he may apply afresh and his title will be granted.

Boundary dispute
(under the Land Registration Act 2002)

If there is a dispute over ownership of land as a result of uncertainty over the precise line of a boundary then the 2002 Act provides for this to be treated other than as a case of adverse possession. The Act specifies that:

- the land concerned must adjoin land owned by the squatter;

- the exact line of the boundary must not have already been determined (see determined boundary);

- the squatter must reasonably have believed the land was the squatter’s for the last ten years;

- the land must have been registered for more than one year.

Boundary, general

The Land Registration Act 2002 tells us that:

60	*Boundaries*
	(1) The boundary of a registered estate as shown for the purposes of the register is a general boundary, unless shown as determined under this section.
	(2) A general boundary does not determine the exact line of the boundary.

The boundary shown on the Land Registry title plan is therefore not a precise definition of the legal boundary. It would be wrong to scale from the title plan the position of the general boundary and to measure that position out on the ground in an attempt to identify the position of the legal boundary. In addition to the technical error in doing this, one has to consider the issue of the accuracy of the title plan.

Boundary, legal

The legal boundary is the boundary as defined in the conveyance deed (or transfer deed or Indenture) that first defined the parcel of land in question. The legal boundary is usually shown on a plan attached to the conveyance. Such plans are usually of low quality. The deed may in any case limit the usefulness of the plan, by describing the land with a qualifying phrase such as “which is for the purposes of identification only shown on the attached plan”. Some conveyances (or their plans) carry dimensions. Unless these can be shown to be inaccurate or misleading, such dimensions are often valuable in defining a legal boundary.

Boundary, physical

A physical boundary is an obstruction that is placed on the land, which for practical purposes serves to demarcate one piece of land from another. A physical boundary is not necessarily a property boundary because it may separate one field from another field within the same farm, or to separate the front garden of a house from the rear garden.

Examples of physical boundaries include:

Walls, fences, hedges, banks, ditches, streams, edge of road, side of house, garage, barn or other outbuilding.

Physical boundaries are shown on Ordnance Survey maps – Ordnance Survey does not enquire as to the locations of property boundaries when surveying for its maps.

A legal boundary may follow a physical boundary, or may be related to it in some way. For example, a legal boundary may run along the centre of a hedge, or down one side of a hedge, or at a prescribed distance from the centre of a hedge, or along the outer rim of a ditch associated with a hedge.

Conveyance

The transfer of the ownership of land from one person to another.

The transfer is usually recorded by a conveyance deed. See also indenture, title deeds.

Covenant

A private contract between two parties, usually expressed in the form of a clause in a deed. Examples include covenants to fence the land, or to refrain from fencing an open-plan front garden.

A covenant is enforceable only for as long as the two parties to it can be identified and as long as one of those parties wishes it to remain in force.

For example:
- If a developer sells a new house (and its land) to Mr and Mrs A with a covenant to leave the front garden open plan;
- and Mr & Mrs A sell the property on to Mr & Mrs B with a covenant to observe the covenants of the original conveyance (the one between the developer and Mr & Mrs A);
- then Mr & Mrs B must keep the front garden open plan;
- but if the developer ceases trading and no representative of the developer can be found then Mr & Mrs B may consider the covenant to no longer have any force.

- However, if the covenant was put into the original conveyance because it was a matter of local planning policy, and if Mr & Mrs B fence in their front garden, then the local council planning department may see fit to intervene and have the garden restored to open plan.

Deed

A deed is a formal written document that has force in law to alter the rights and duties of the parties to it. To be effective a deed has to be signed, sealed and delivered.
See also conveyance deed, indenture, title deeds.

Determined boundary

To enable a landowner to give certainty to the position of a boundary the Land Registration Act 2002 allows for boundaries to be determined. The actual process is under review at the present time.

Dominant tenement

The land that enjoys the benefit of an easement is referred to as the dominant tenement. For example, the land served by a right of way is a dominant tenement whilst the land over which the right of way (footpath, road) runs is the servient tenement.

Easement

An easement is a right enjoyed by one piece of land over, or placing a burden upon, an adjacent piece of land. The land that enjoys the benefit of the easement is known as the dominant tenement. The land burdened by the easement is known as the servient tenement.

Examples of easements include:

- private right of way,

- right of support,

- right to light,

- water rights,

- profits à prendre.

Sometimes other easements are created, such as:

- a right for underground services to cross neighbouring land,

- a right for eaves and gutters to overhang neighbouring land,

- a right for footings to encroach beneath neighbouring land,

- a right to share gutters, downpipes and soakaways,

- a right of access to neighbouring land for the maintenance and repair either of underground services or of the face of a building erected against the boundary,

- a right to park cars.

An easement is said to be appurtenant to the land, and to run with the land. In other words, it belongs to the land rather than to the owner of the land, and it cannot be sold off separately from the land.

An easement is created by one of the following methods:

- express grant,

- Prescription,

- Necessity.

An expressly granted easement would normally be found as a clause in the title deeds of both the dominant and servient tenements, but even if it is found in the deeds of one but not the other then it is still a valid easement.

Easements created by prescription or of necessity are by their very nature unlikely to be recorded in the title deeds of either tenement. According to the Law of Property Act 1925, “A conveyance of land … shall be deemed to include … with the land … all … privileges, easements, rights and advantages whatsoever, appertaining or reputed to appertain to the land …” So it is not necessary for an easement to be recorded in the title deeds in order for a valid easement to exist.

62 General words implied in conveyances

(1) A conveyance of land shall be deemed to include and shall by virtue of this Act operate to convey, with the land, all buildings, erections, fixtures, commons, hedges, ditches, fences, ways, waters, watercourses, liberties, privileges, easements, rights, and advantages whatsoever, appertaining or reputed to appertain to the land, or any part thereof, or, at the time of the conveyance, demised, occupied, or enjoyed with or reputed or known as part or parcel of or appurtenant to the land or any part thereof.

Indenture

A deed made by more than one party. The Law of Property Act 1925 made the term redundant.

Land Registration Act 2002

The primary purpose of this Act is to modernise the legislation relating to land registration, most of which dates from 1925.

There is very little new law in the Act, the most notable new law being on adverse possession. The Act seeks to give greater protection to owners of registered land (owners of unregistered land are unaffected), by making it necessary for the squatter to apply to Land Registry after 10 years (or more) possession of the land for registration of his title to the land. Land Registry’s automatic response will be to notify the registered owner of the land of the squatter’s application, thus giving the registered owner the opportunity to evict the squatter. It is expected that owners who have scattered land holdings (eg. developers with land banks) will benefit from this and will thus be encouraged to voluntarily register their title to the land in order to obtain the protection offered by the Act.

The Act, by stating the principle of general boundaries in section 60 of the Act itself rather than leaving it in the Rules (as the 1925 Act did) tries to make it clear that England & Wales operate a system of general boundaries.

The Act introduces a new category of determined boundaries. It has always been possible to apply for the boundaries of a parcel of land to be “fixed” so as to avoid any future uncertainty as to their position. This procedure has rarely been used, so determined boundaries are being introduced. The detail surrounding a determined boundary is currently under review.

The Act provides for the appointment and role of the Adjudicator to the Land Registry. The Adjudicator (there will actually be many adjudicators) will be appointed directly by the Lord Chancellor and will thus be independent of Land Registry. The role of the Adjudicator will be to settle disputes over land more quickly and cheaply than by taking matters to court. The independence of the Adjudicator is necessary in order to give the public confidence that his/her decisions are not influenced by Land Registry’s liability to pay an indemnity in certain cases.

Occupation Road

Parking, in gardens

Separate drives

If you have a driveway staying always on your land whilst your neighbour has a separate driveway on his land then you may park on your own drive and he may park on his.

Contiguous drives

If the two driveways described above are contiguous and have no barrier between them, then you may out of neighbourliness allow each other the use of your driveway for turning, but you may not park on your neighbour's land without your neighbour's permission.

Shared drive

If you have a driveway leading from your garage towards the street, and your neighbour has a similar driveway that merges with yours into a single narrower driveway, then you have a more complex situation. The narrow, merged part of the drive is presumably half on your land and half on your neighbour's land. If so then you each have a right of way over the half of the drive that stands on your neighbour's land.

You may park on the wider part of the driveway in front of your own garage, but only if all of the parked car stands on your land and does not overlap onto the shared drive. The reason for this is that if your car stands wholly or partly on the shared drive then it obstructs your neighbour's right of way between his garage and the street.

Rights of way and parking

A right of way is not a right to park, it is merely a right to pass to and fro along the way. It is usually accepted that a vehicle may stop on a right of way adjacent to the land that enjoys the right of way for the purpose of loading and unloading.

A right of way is a form of easement. In modern times it has become accepted that a right of parking is another form of easement. Unless an easement has been expressly granted (ie. written into a conveyance deed) then it has to be established by "prescription". Even when a prescriptive right of parking has been established on a shared driveway, there is still an obligation to keep the right of way clear at all times for the neighbour who is entitled to a right of way over the same driveway. Thus a right of parking on a shared drive would be a worthless asset.

Possessory Title

A title to land that is recognised as being in the ownership of someone who has no paperwork to back up his ownership.

In past centuries, when houses were made of flammable materials and were both heated and illuminated by naked flames, it made sense to recognise the title to land of someone whose house had burned down taking all his paperwork with it.

The concept of possessory title makes it possible for someone who has occupied waste or unsettled land to claim title under adverse possession.

Under the Land Registration Act 2002, a squatter on registered land must apply to Land Registry for registration of his title and cannot rely on possession alone.

Prescription

A prescriptive easement is a right that has been established by openly exercising over neighbouring land the sought-for right, without the landowner's permission, continuously for a period of twenty years

Purchaser

Buyer.

Registered land

Land the title to which is registered at Land Registry.

Right of way, private

A private right of way is an easement allowing a neighbouring landowner to pass and to re-pass along a private road (ie. an unadopted road).

A private right of way may arise by:

- express grant;
- of necessity;
- by prescription.

The deed of grant for an expressly grant right of way should (but rarely does) include all of the following terms:
- purpose for which the right of way is granted (agricultural, industrial, residential or all purposes);
- uses to which the right of way may be put (on foot, with vehicles, etc – note that ‘with horse and carriage’ will be translated as meaning with a motor car);
- time restrictions (there may be times of day or dates during the year in which use of the way is not permitted);

- position and extent of the right of way (including width, height and weight restrictions);
- obligations as to maintenance (what share is paid by each landowner whose land benefits from the easement).

Note that a right of way does not amount to a right of parking. In fact, parking on a right of way may amount to obstruction.

The owner of a servient tenement has a right to secure his land, and if this means placing a gate across a right of way enjoyed by others then so be it. If the needs of security dictate that the gate is locked, then those benefiting from the easement must have the means of opening the gate whenever they wish to pass.

If there is no agreement as to maintenance and if the owner of the servient tenement is unwilling or unable to repair the way (or his identity is unknown) then one or more owners of the dominant tenements have the right to repair the way. An owner of a dominant tenement may only repair, and not improve, the right of way: improvement amounts to development of the land and as the owner of the dominant tenement does not own the land in question then he has no right to develop that land.

Servient tenement

A servient tenement is the land that carries the burden of an easement that benefits someone else’s land. Examples include:

- land that includes a private road used by other properties,

- a garden containing a well from which others are entitled to draw water,

- land crossed by underground services that supply an adjacent property.

Title, to land

There are two meanings:

A landowner’s right to the enjoyment of his land.
The means by which an owner has the just possession of his land, in other words the evidence given in either the title deeds (unregistered land) or the land certificate (registered land).

Title deeds

A set of deeds evidencing a person’s title to land. With unregistered conveyancing it was the practice for the vendor to pass to the purchaser (on completion of the sale) all of the conveyance deeds that related to previous transfers of that piece of land.

Land Registry guarantees the title to registered land, and a number of solicitors and/or mortgage lenders have considered the title deeds to registered land to be redundant and have destroyed them. Others have seen the wisdom in retaining such original documents, which often contain information not available in the registration documents - information that may be valuable in resolving disputes.

Title number

A unique number assigned to a parcel of land by Land Registry upon first registration of title to that land. The title number usually comprises two parts: an alphabetic code (of up to three letters) to signify the geographic area (eg. a county) in which the land parcel is located; and a sequential number (of up to 6 digits) to uniquely identify the parcel within that geographic area.

Title plan

The plan prepared by Land Registry to illustrate the extent of a registered title. Based on an Ordnance Survey map, the title plan indicates the general boundary by red edging.

The title plan may differentiate different areas by colour tinting to show where different covenants apply to discrete parts of the land.

A private right of way crossing a servient tenement or benefiting a dominant tenement will also be shown using colour tinting.

Prior to the Land Registration Act 2002, a title plan was called a filed plan.

Vendor

Seller.

This page was last updated on 11 May 2008