Land law is based on the principal that all land belongs to the crown and there are two forms of ownership of land recognised under English law1, freehold estates which are perpetually lasting and leasehold estates that last for a fixed duration of time2. From these two forms of ownership an interest in land is derived one that is legal and both give proprietary rights in land and can bind third parties who acquire the land. Land is also recognised as having registered and unregistered interests and the Law of Property Act3 gave a structure to the title of ownership to land as all land is owned by the crown an interest is given in title by Freehold and Leasehold forms. The Law Commission/Land Registry joint report4 identified:
(1) the need to create the legal environment in which it was possible to
conduct conveyancing in electronic form and which reflected the
possibilities that electronic conveyancing could offer;
(2) the unsatisfactory nature of the legislation that governs land
registration;
(3) the need to create principles that reflected the fact that registered land
was different from unregistered land and rested on different principles
The freehold estate when registered should give a complete picture to the title of land such as rights and encumbrances attached to the land according to Bray5 who suggests some rights remain undiscoverable by searching the register of land title and are classed as an overriding interest. Stevens and Pearce6 argue these are a significant gap in the effectiveness in the comprehensiveness of the land registration system. Gravells7 quotes Vinelott J. stating in Kling v Keston Properties8 that such interests might not be discovered after inspection of the register so becoming a problem especially in unregistered land and affecting the use of the land by an overriding interest. The Land Registration Act9 now states a disposition is required to be completed by registration, such as when a transfer of the...