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About Property Law

Property is one of the most complex areas of law. Some of it is rooted in ancient laws – but case law is constantly changing. The stakes are high, but research time is in short supply. Lexis+ Property brings all of the different sources you need together so you can find the answers you need, fast.

Transferring property

This topic includes a suite of Practice Notes and Precedents covering all aspects of the process of buying and selling land, including conditional contracts and contracts entered into by insolvency practitioners.

Leasing property

Commercial property is a staple for many property lawyers. Coronavirus has introduced changes for landlords and tenants – we’ve taken them and published a suite of precedent Pandemic lease clauses.

Property development

We have a broad range of Practice Notes and Precedents for this specialised and complex area. Structured logically – site acquisition, vacant possession, structuring a development project, overage, and rights of light.

Property disputes

Clear, concise practice notes have direct links to relevant cases, legislation, guidance and commentary. Our daily news feeds and weekly highlights keep you informed of new cases, and legislation.

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Latest Property Q&As

Q&As
A developer goes into administration, leaving a number of plots unbuilt. The developer had taken deposits from individual buyers in respect of those plots. Can the plot buyers recover the deposits?
Q&As
When offering tenants the right of first refusal under section 5 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 and the estate being disposed of has more than one building/block, the landlord is required to sever the transaction and deal with each building separately. When tenants across the various blocks have the same rights over the same appurtenant property, such as roadways and gardens, how should this be split between the blocks when identifying the land being disposed of in each section 5 notice?
Q&As
My client is selling a freehold subject to an intermediate lease and four residential underleases granted out of it. The disposal of the intermediate lease is a disposal for the purposes of the 1987 Act and the head lessor will be the landlord. Because we are also selling the freehold simultaneously with the intermediate lease, should the freeholder as well as the head lessor (ie by both together) serve the section 5a notice even though the sale of the freehold is not a relevant disposal and the freeholder is not the immediate landlord of the qualifying tenants?
Q&As
Freehold title is owned by A. There is an intermediate leasehold title owned by B. A has a beneficial interest in the intermediate leasehold interest in capacity as trustee under the pension fund, which is the registered legal owner of the intermediate leasehold interest. Will that be sufficient to satisfy the requirement for the same person to own the freehold and leasehold titles in order for merger to occur?
Q&As
Can an easement be acquired by prescription over an access route which is used for fire escape purposes only?
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Associated legal terms

Exception in deed

An exception in a deed is wording that withholds part of the grantor’s existing legal interest from the property being conveyed, so that the excepted right or land never passes to the transferee. In practice, it “carves out” something that already exists, such as a strip of land, a mineral interest or an established right of way.

In England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland, the term is used in conveyancing and property drafting to distinguish an “exception” (retaining an existing right or parcel) from a “reservation” (creating a new right out of the land being granted), although some modern drafting treats the labels less strictly. The concept is largely shaped by case law and standard conveyancing practice rather than detailed statutory definition.

In Scotland, similar effects are usually achieved by excepting subjects from the conveyance in the dispositive clause, with Scots property law focussing on the description of the subjects disponed rather than on the terminology of “exception”.

Accurate use of exceptions in a deed is critical to define the extent of title, avoid unintended transfers, and ensure correct registration in the land registers across all four jurisdictions.

Nemo dat rule

No person may confer a better title to land or goods than that person in fact has.

Quarter Day

/ˈk(w)ɔːtə/ /deɪ/

The days on which commercial rents are usually paid. Traditionally these are 25 December, 25 March, 24 June and 29 September (ie Christmas, Lady Day, Midsummer Day, Michaelmas), although some leases use the modern quarter days – 1 January, 1 April, 1 July, 1 October.

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