The vendor was accused of failing to prevent a trespasser removing soil from land between exchange and completion. Lord Coleridge CJ said: ‘ in the case of a contract for the sale and purchase of land, although the legal property does not pass until the execution of the conveyance, during the interval prior to completion the vendor in possession is a trustee for the purchaser, and as such has duties to perform towards him, not exactly the same as in the case of other trustees, but certain duties, one of which is to use reasonable care to preserve the property in a reasonable state of preservation, and, so far as may be, as it was when the contract was made.’
Lord Coleridge CJ
[1891] 2 QB 456
England and Wales
Cited by:
- Cited – Englewood Properties Limited v Shailesh Patel, Cornberry Limited ChD 16-Feb-2005
The claimant was a property developer, which sought to sell a row of shops at auction. One lot was a Woolworths store, where the company owned both freehold and leasehold interests, with Woolworths occupying an underlease, which the claimant had . .
[2005] EWHC 188 (Ch), Times 09-Mar-05, [2005] 3 All ER 307, [2005] 1 WLR 1961
These lists may be incomplete.
Updated: 10 December 2020; Ref: scu.223739