Land Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 3

Land Law - Essay Example In addition, equitable interests bound persons other than bona fide purchases of the estate for value without any notice of equitable rights3. However, Law of Property Act 2002 outlines certain legal rights such as leases for more than seven years that require registration and that will bind the purchaser of the land. Covenants, easements and estate contracts need registration; otherwise, the purchaser will not be bound regardless of whether he had knowledge of such interests. However, the right of beneficiaries under trust is overreaching thus is subject to doctrine of notice4. Estates and tenures stem from common law that dominated the early English law system that eventually evolved to Royal courts in terms of common pleas and exchequer. However, writs of the courts led to injustice in certain cases and principles of equity emerged based on conscience. Equity would prevail over common law in cases of conflict. For instance, common law courts refused to recognize the right of beneficiaries under trust land since it is only the trustees who had legal rights to the land unlike courts of equity that fully recognized the right of beneficiaries to the property5. In this case, equitable rights were not enforceable against a bona fide purchaser of a legal estate for value without any notice of any other attached claim to the estate. On the other hand, common law acts in rem and is enforceable against anybody ‘good against the whole world’ on all legal estates and interests6. According to land law, a bona fide purchaser for value is an innocent party who purchases property without any notice of any other party’s claim to the land. The bona fide purchaser must acquire the land for value rather than being a beneficiary to the land. In this case, the purchaser can acquire title to the land despite the competing claim from other interested parties7. A purchaser