Conveyancing in UK Law

It follows that if it becomes necessary to establish the exact boundary, the deeds will almost invariably have to be supplemented by such inferences as may be drawn from topographical features which existed, or may be supposed to have existed, when the conveyances were executed.

When a court is required to decide what property passed under aparticular conveyance, it must have regard to the conveyance as a whole, including any plan which forms part of it. It is from the conveyance as a whole that that intention must he ascertained.

In the present case the plan on the conveyance does help in that respect to solve an aspect of the problem of identifying the property conveyed which is not solved in any way by the very brief description of the parcels contained in the schedule. There is no other means of discovering what the parties intended to be the boundary betweenwhat was comprised in Lot 795 and what constitutes the disputed land which was excluded from Lot 795 hut did form part of OS317.

That required a consideration of the February conveyance in the context of the surrounding circumstances in which it was granted, and having regard also to any evidence properly admissible for the purposes of its interpretation. It is a statement of the obvious that the crucial provision in the conveyance was the parcels clause, since it was there that the parties identified the land being conveyed.

If one looks at the real nature of the transaction, there seems to me no doubt that Ferris J. was right in saying that the trustees and beneficiaries never at any time acquired the land free of Lady Ingram's leasehold interest. It involves obligations between the parties enforceable in contract or by virtue of privity of estate. It cannot therefore be regarded as the mere reservation of property like a life interest.

In this case, the judge was rightly critical of what he also termed "sloppy conveyancing". I agree with his comment that this case illustrates the time and trouble which can be caused by sloppy conveyancing. It would have been far more satisfactory to the vendor, Mrs Joyce, if the boundary had been fixed in a proper manner before she sold 6 Chanton Drive to Mr Rigolli's predecessor in title.

The reality is that, in the vast majority of cases, the acquisition of the legal estate and the charge are not only precisely simultaneous but indissolubly bound together.