The plaintiff company acquired the registered freehold title of a house in 1957. The house was already demised on a long lease. The leaseholder had sublet to the defendant, who, by continuous non-payment of rent, had, by 1963, acquired a prescriptive title against her. In 1968 the defendant sought registration as proprietor of the leasehold interest and, in the absence of any response from the leaseholder’s solicitors to the notice that they received, the Land Registry closed the registration of the latter’s title, and opened a new registration of the defendant’s title, describing the property as leasehold land held on the terms of the 1902 lease. Seven years later, in 1975, the leaseholder sought to defeat the defendant’s title by executing a deed of surrender to the freeholder (a company controlled by her own family).
Held: Browne-Wilkinson J said that the device, as it was admitted to be, failed, saying: ‘To my mind the words of section 75(1) are clear and unequivocal: the squatter claims to have acquired a title to ‘a registered estate in the land’ (ie the leasehold interest) and applies to be registered as a proprietor ‘thereof’ (my emphasis). Therefore under section 75(2), references to the squatter having acquired title to a registered estate must include the rights which under the Limitation Act 1939 the squatter acquires in relation to leasehold interests. Section 75(2) then refers to the squatter applying to be registered as proprietor ‘thereof’. This word can, in my judgment, only refer back to the registered estate in the land against which the squatter has acquired title under the Act of 1939, ie the leasehold interest. The clear words of the Act therefore seem to require that, once the 12 years have run, the squatter is entitled to be registered as proprietor of the lease itself, and is bound to be so registered if he applies for registration. It follows that in my judgment the defendant (as the squatter) is correctly registered as proprietor of the lease itself in accordance with the clear requirements of section 75. If that is right, . . [the leaseholder] cannot be entitled to rectification of the register as against the defendant, and she can therefore never get into a position in which she is competent to surrender the lease to the plaintiff.’
Judges:
Browne-Wilkinson J
Citations:
[1981] 1 All ER 6, (1980) 41 P and CR 133, [1981] 1 WLR 221
Statutes:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Registered Land, Limitation
Updated: 23 March 2022; Ref: scu.252433