There have
been some recent developments in relation to property notices:
Unilateral
Notices
Where there
are a number of charges over registered land, the first in time to be
registered has priority (it is cleared first when a property is sold). In
Bank of Scotland Plc v Joseph & Others (2014) the Court of Appeal
confirmed that it is the fact of registration and not its method which governs
priority. In this case the charge was registered in an unusual way, by
placing a unilateral notice against the borrower’s title. The Court
confirmed this did not affect priority. Unilateral notices can be removed
by the property owner on application to the Land Registry, so if used as a
temporary means of protection, steps should still be taken to permanently
protect the interest as soon as possible. A link to the case is here: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2014/28.html
Residential
Possession
If a tenant
breaches the terms of an assured tenancy the landlord must follow a statutory
procedure to recover possession. The first step is to serve a
notice. The Housing Act 1988 states that a court shall not make an order
for possession “unless the statutory ground and particulars of it are specified
in the notice”. In The Queen (on the application of Masih) v Yousaf
(2014) the Court of Appeal confirmed that minor deviations from the precise
wording in the Act of a ground relied on would not invalidate a notice,
provided the deviation would not leave a tenant in any doubt over the breach
complained of. The Court did however warn that there was no need to
deviate from the statutory wording when drafting a notice and it should be followed
to avoid any possibility of a dispute. A link to the case is here: http://www.landlordsguild.com/masih-v-yousaf-section-8-notice-and-schedule-2/
Leasehold
Reform
Provided
certain criteria are met, long leaseholders of flats can extend their lease or
collectively acquire the freehold to their building. The process is
started by serving a
formal notice. Such notices have to be signed by the leaseholder(s)
themselves and are invalid if signed on their behalf by an agent or
lawyer. The law in England (but not Wales) will change, so that from 13
May 2014 such notices will be valid if signed on behalf of the
leaseholder(s).
By Nitej Davda, Associate