SS. 1, 2. Forty years sixty years as the root of title. CHAPTER II. THE VENDOR AND PURCHASER ACT, 1874, An Act to amend the Law of Vendor and Purchaser, and Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: 1. In the completion of any contract of sale of land substituted for made after the thirty-first day of December one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, and subject to any stipulation to the contrary in the contract, forty years shall be substituted as the period of commencement of title which a purchaser may require in place of sixty years, the present period of such commencement; nevertheless earlier title than forty years may be required in cases similar to those in which earlier title than sixty years may now be required. Definition of "land" in Acts of Parliament. Rules for regulating obligations and rights of vendor and purchaser The word "land" in Acts of Parliament includes messuages, tenements and hereditaments, houses and buildings of every tenure (13 & 14 Vict. c. 21, s. 4), unless its meaning is restricted. 2. In the completion of any such contract as aforesaid, and subject to any stipulation to the contrary in the contract, the obligations and rights of vendor and purchaser shall be regulated by the following rules; that is to say, First. Under a contract to grant or assign a term of years, whether derived or to be derived out of a S. 2. The rule that a lessee has constructive notice of his lessor's title has Rule that not been altered by this section. He is now in the same position with regard to notice as if he had before this Act stipulated not to inquire into his lessor's title (Patman v. Harland, 17 Ch. D. 353, 358). Second. Recitals, statements, and descriptions of facts, matters, and parties contained in deeds, instruments, Acts of Parliament, or statutory declarations, twenty years old at the date of the contract, shall, unless and except so far as they shall be proved to be inaccurate, be taken to be sufficient evidence of the truth of such facts, matters, and descriptions. In Bolton v. London S. Board, 7 Ch. D. 766, a recital in a deed more than twenty years old that a vendor was seised in fee simple was held sufficient evidence of that fact, precluding the purchaser from demanding a prior abstract, except so far as the recital was proved to be inaccurate. The decision seems open to question, as it in effect negatives the recognised right of a purchaser to a proper abstract of title extending over forty years, which might shew the recital to be inaccurate. Third. The inability of the vendor to furnish the purchaser with a legal covenant to produce and furnish copies of documents of title shall not be an objection to title in case the purchaser will, on the completion of the contract, have an equitable right to the production of such documents. lessee has lessor's title notice of not altered. Effect of recital twenty years old. As to the purchaser's equitable right to production of documents, see Purchaser's Sug. V. & P. c. 11, s. 5, 14th ed.; Dart, 143, 5th ed. Fourth. Such covenants for production as the purchaser can and shall require shall be furnished at his expense, and the vendor shall bear the expense of perusal and execution on behalf of and by himself, and on behalf of and by necessary parties other than the purchaser. Fifth. Where the vendor retains any part of an estate equitable right to production of documents. SS. 2, 3, 4, 5. Trustees may sell, &c., notwithstanding rules. Legal personal representative may convey to which any documents of title relate he shall be entitled to retain such documents. Contracts for sale, where the vendor retains any documents, should now provide for giving an acknowledgment in writing of the right of the purchaser to the production, and delivery of copies under C. A. s. 9, and, where he is beneficial owner, also an undertaking for safe custody (see Special Conditions of Sale, post). But the liability to give the covenant under s. 2, r. 4 of this Act is satisfied by an acknowledgment (C. A. s. 9 (8)). As to the costs of attested and other copies of documents retained by the vendor, see C. A. s. 3 (6), post. 3. Trustees who are either vendors or purchasers may sell or buy without excluding the application of the second section of this Act. 4. The legal personal representative of a mortgagee of a freehold estate, or of a copyhold estate to which the mortlegal estate of gagee shall have been admitted, may, on payment of all sums secured by the mortgage, convey or surrender the mortgaged estate, whether the mortgage be in form an assurance subject to redemption, or an assurance upon trust. mortgaged property. Bare legal estate in fee simple to vest Repealed and superseded by s. 30 of the C. A. as to deaths happening after 1881. This section did not apply to a transfer of mortgage (Re Spradbery's Mortgage, 14 Ch. D. 514). 5. Upon the death of a bare trustee of any corporeal or incorporeal hereditament of which such trustee was seised in in executor or fee simple, such hereditament shall vest like a chattel real in the legal personal representative from time to time of such trustee. administrator. Repealed as to England on and after the 1st January 1876, by the Land Transfer Act 1875, s. 48, except as to anything duly done thereunder before that date, and re-enacted by the same section with an amendment confining its operation " to a bare trustee dying intestate," which section has in turn been repealed by the C. A., s. 30, in case of deaths occurring after 1881. It would seem therefore that where nothing had been done under this section before the 1st January 1876, the hereditament of a bare trustee dying testate, and vested in his personal representative solely by force of this section, became divested and devolved as if the V. & P. A. had not been passed. Thus, up to the 1st of January 1882, where nothing had been done under this repealed section before the 1st of January 1876, the devise by a bare trustee of his trust estate is operative. Repealed as to Ireland by the C. A., s. 73, in case of deaths happening SS. 5, 6, 7, 8.. after 1881. As to the meaning of "bare trustee," see Christie v. Ovington, Meaning of 1 Ch. D. 279; Morgan v. Swansea U.S. Authority, 9 Ch. D. 582; and "bare trustee." p. 137 (a), post. There is no distinction between the cases of a bare trustee and any other trustee dying after 1881. 6. When any freehold or copyhold hereditament shall be vested in a married woman as a bare trustee, she may convey or surrender the same as if she were a feme sole. 7. After the commencement of this Act, no priority or protection shall be given or allowed to any estate, right, or interest in land by reason of such estate, right, or interest being protected by or tacked to any legal or other estate or interest in such land; and full effect shall be given in every court to this provision, although the person claiming such priority or protection as aforesaid shall claim as a purchaser for valuable consideration and without notice: Provided always, that this section shall not take away from any estate, right, title, or interest any priority or protection which but for this section would have been given or allowed thereto as against any estate or interest existing before the commencement of this Act. Repealed as to England by The Land Transfer Act, 1875, s. 129, and as to Ireland by the C. A.,s. 73. The effect of this section was to prevent a first mortgagee from being safe in making a further advance, his security for which became under this section postponed to all intermediate mortgages; as to which, consider Pease v. Jackson, 3 Ch. App. 576. 8. Where the will of a testator devising land in Middlesex or Yorkshire has not been registered within the period allowed by law in that behalf, an assurance of such land to a purchaser or mortgagee by the devisee or by some one deriving title under him shall, if registered before, take precedence of and prevail over any assurance from the testator's heir-at-law. As to the time allowed for the registration of wills in Middlesex, see 7 Anne, c. 20, ss. 8-10; in the W. Riding of Yorkshire, 2 & 3 Anne, c. 4, ss. 20, 21; and 6 Anne, c. 35, s. 34; in the E. Riding, 6 Anne, c. 35, ss. 14, 15; and in the N. Riding, 8 Geo. 2, c. 6, ss. 15-17. Married a bare trustee woman who is may convey, &c. Protection and priority by legal estates and tacking allowed. not to be Non-registraMiddlesex, &c., cured in cer tion of will in tain cases. Time for registration of wills in Middlesex and Yorkshire. 9. A vendor or purchaser of real or leasehold estate in England, or their representatives respectively, may at any time or times and from time to time apply in a summary way to a judge of the Court of Chancery in England in chambers, in respect of any requisitions or objections, or any claim for compensation, or any other question arising out of or connected with the contract (not being a question affecting the existence or validity of the contract), and the judge shall make such order upon the application as to him shall appear just, and shall order how and by whom all or any of the costs of and incident to the application shall be borne and paid. A vendor or purchaser of real or leasehold estate in Ireland, or their representatives respectively, may in like manner and for the same purpose apply to a judge of the Court of Chancery in Ireland, and the judge shall make such order upon the application as to him shall appear just, and shall order how and by whom all or any of the costs of and incident to the application shall be borne and paid. In proceedings under this section the parties are in the same position as under a reference as to title in an action for specific performance, and accordingly evidence by affidavit is admissible (Re Burroughs, &c., 5 Ch. D. 601). For further instances of applications under this section, see Re Coward & Adams' Purchase, L. R. 20 Eq. 179; Christie v. Ovington, 1 Ch. D. 279; Re Brown & Sibly's Contract, 3 ib. 156; and cases cited Clerke & Brett, Conv. A. 188, and Harris & Clarkson, Conv. A. 185– 188. 10. This Act shall not apply to Scotland, and may be cited as the Vendor and Purchaser Act, 1874. |