Boundary Dispute
Question:
1. Undertake a search on EGi (or similar) to establish recent case law that will (or has) influence (d) the way in which real estate is transacted in the UK.
2 In a report of no more than 500 words identify the key issues associated with one of the cases. Explain the effect the case could have had on the transaction of the property in your case study.
Answer:
Activity 2.2 Case Study (Yeates v Line [2012] EWHC 3085 (Ch))
This case study involves a boundary dispute relating to a triangular piece of land measuring approximately 34 meters by 24 meters at its widest point.
The parties involved (Mr and Mrs Yeates & Ms Line and Mr Field) met on site over the Easter 2011 weekend, without legal representation, and walked the land to agree the position of a boundary fence. The High Court decided that the parties’ agreement had settled who owned the land on each side of the fence and, as a result, that land belonging to one of the neighbours should, in future, belong to the other.
Key Issue: Was the agreement void because it had not been made in writing in accordance with section 2? (Section 2 of the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989 requires contracts for the sale or disposition of interests in land to be made in writing. The contract must incorporate all the terms that the parties have expressly agreed in one document or, where contracts are exchanged, in each.)
The Court of Appeal had to consider whether an oral boundary agreement needed to comply with section 2 in Joyce v Rigolli [2004] EWCA Civ 79. It decided that oral agreements, which serve to identify the boundary between properties, will not normally need to be reduced to writing and need not be signed by all the parties to the agreement, even though the parties know that their agreement will actually result in an exchange of land. To hold otherwise would fly in the face of public policy, which is to encourage the parties to resolve boundary disputes without resorting to
1. Undertake a search on EGi (or similar) to establish recent case law that will (or has) influence (d) the way in which real estate is transacted in the UK.
2 In a report of no more than 500 words identify the key issues associated with one of the cases. Explain the effect the case could have had on the transaction of the property in your case study.
Answer:
Activity 2.2 Case Study (Yeates v Line [2012] EWHC 3085 (Ch))
This case study involves a boundary dispute relating to a triangular piece of land measuring approximately 34 meters by 24 meters at its widest point.
The parties involved (Mr and Mrs Yeates & Ms Line and Mr Field) met on site over the Easter 2011 weekend, without legal representation, and walked the land to agree the position of a boundary fence. The High Court decided that the parties’ agreement had settled who owned the land on each side of the fence and, as a result, that land belonging to one of the neighbours should, in future, belong to the other.
Key Issue: Was the agreement void because it had not been made in writing in accordance with section 2? (Section 2 of the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989 requires contracts for the sale or disposition of interests in land to be made in writing. The contract must incorporate all the terms that the parties have expressly agreed in one document or, where contracts are exchanged, in each.)
The Court of Appeal had to consider whether an oral boundary agreement needed to comply with section 2 in Joyce v Rigolli [2004] EWCA Civ 79. It decided that oral agreements, which serve to identify the boundary between properties, will not normally need to be reduced to writing and need not be signed by all the parties to the agreement, even though the parties know that their agreement will actually result in an exchange of land. To hold otherwise would fly in the face of public policy, which is to encourage the parties to resolve boundary disputes without resorting to