Providing everything required to conduct an action involving a boundary dispute or easement claim, Boundaries and Easements:
- Includes all you need to know about the related topics of boundaries and easements, so that you can advise on rights and obligations, draft documents, and resolve problems that may occur
- Covers the creation of express grant, implied grant, statute and prescription easements, so you fully understand all the technical details of easements
- Provides detailed guidance on case preparation and procedural steps to ensure you are taking the correct approach
- Offers remedies for the most likely scenarios, and suggests solutions for more uncommon situations so that you are prepared for any eventuality
- Contains useful background information on related topics, such as public rights of way, access to the countryside, and customary rights, so that you have a sound knowledge of all related areas
- Looks at the practical issues of case preparation and procedural steps peculiar to this kind of litigation, ensuring all steps are covered when preparing the case
- Deals with up-to-date case law, enabling you to understand how the law now stands
- Incorporates the text of relevant statutes and statutory instruments, so that all you need is in this handy volume
- Includes a range of precedents, to assist you in the drafting of pleadings
Some key areas and cases covered in the new edition:
Construction of conveyances and grant In Chartbrook v Persimmon Homes [2010] 1 P&CR 162 the House of Lords furthers the debate about the tension between the need for certainty and the interests of justice. ICS v West Bromwich BS [1998] 1 WLR 896 was seen as the leading case, but it was criticised for encouraging an excessive amount of evidence to establish “all the circumstances”. In Chartbrook v Persimmon Homes [2010] 1 P&CR 162 the House of Lords and, in particular, Lord Hoffman addressed these problems:
- Where there is an obvious mistake, the court can go outside the words of the agreement
- While pre-contract negotiations are not directly relevant, they can still form part of the background
- Rectification requires prior consensus, but not a prior enforceable agreement
Proprietary estoppel
McGuane v Welch [2008] 2 P&CR 530 and Cobb v Yeoman Row Management [2008] UKHL 55. The Privy Council and the House of Lords respectively analyse the problem surrounding this area of the law as well as the undeveloped concept of constructive trusts.
Adverse possession and human rights
The new edition considers the developing argument with the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in the Pye case [2008] EHRR 45 and the Court of Appeal in Offulu v Bosser [2008] EWCA Civ 7. The question of whether our law of adverse possession complies with the Human Rights Act is a very important part of the conceptual basis of the doctrine and is important for interpretation both of the old law and the 2002 Act.
Adjudicator
The Land registry Adjudicator tribunal has become an important source for the law of boundaries and easements, with many issues addressed which had not been previously considered in reported cases. However, within the new edition, the most significant cases have been now been considered.
Highways
In Sec of State v Godmanchester Corp [2008] 1 P&CR 210 the House of Lords overturned the judgment of the Court of Appeal dealt with in the previous edition and gave a new slant on the meaning of “intention” both in respect of the intention to dedicate and “contrary intention”.
Water boundaries
There is now an up-to-date authority on foreshore and adverse possession against the Crown in the case of Roberts v Crown Estates Commissioners [2008] 2 P&CR1.
Oil
A modern case on the exploitation of oil rights –Bocardo SA v Star Energy UK Onshore [2008] 2 P&CR 496 explains the extent of the ancillary rights of access.
Parking
In Moncrieff v Jamison [2008] 1 P&CR 34, 9 the House of Lords has given a long-awaited judgment on parking, albeit in the context of Scottish servitudes, deciding that a right of parking is implied by the construction of the terms of an express grant.
Wayleaves
The important practical issue of sewage connection is dealt with in Barrett Homes v Welsh Water [2010] 1 P&CR 465
Termination of easements
In Lester v Woodgate [2010] 2 P&CR D31 the Court of Appeal has explained the difference between laches and estoppel in the context of the alleged termination of an easement by abandonment.
Rights of Light
In Salvage Wharf v G&S Borough Ltd. [2009] 2 P&CR 220, the Court of Appeal deals with situations when a right of light does not arise because there has been consent or agreement to the user.
Profits à Prendre
Polo Woods Foundation v Shelton-Agar [2010] 1 P&CR 233 explains the difference between the need for a prescriptive right to accommodate the dominant tenement and the needs of the dominant tenement.
Rights of way over commons
These are dealt with in Housden v Wimbledon & Putney Conservators [2008] 3 All ER 1038, where a purposive construction of the original deed is used to uphold a purported grant of a right of way over the common.
