FLK2 · SQE1 module

Property Practice

Property Practice is procedural: the sequence of a conveyancing transaction, from pre-contract enquiries through exchange and completion to registration.

Questions frequently test what a specific step in the process achieves legally, rather than asking candidates to recite the process from memory.

What this module covers

Every topic in Property Practice, in the order the course teaches them. This is the whole syllabus for the module, not a selection.

The Conveyancing Transaction: Stages and Key Questions
Pre-Contract: Instructions, Conduct, Survey, CGT and Disclosure
Investigation of Title: Registered and Unregistered
Pre-Contract Searches and Enquiries
Planning Control, Listed Buildings and Building Regulations
Contract: Standard Conditions, Deposit, Risk and Insurance
Exchange of Contracts and the Law Society Formulae
Pre-Completion: Requisitions, Purchase Deed, Searches and Registration Gap
Completion and Post-Completion
Stamp Duty Land Tax (England and Northern Ireland)
Land Transaction Tax (Wales)
Leasehold: Grant, Assignment, Covenants and Alienation
The Code for Leasing Business Premises (RICS, 2020)
Security of Tenure for Business Tenants (LTA 1954)
Delayed Completion and Remedies for Breach
Finance Sources, Mortgage Types and Acting for the Lender
VAT on Property Transactions and the Option to Tax
Termination of Leases and Rent Review

A real question from this module

Answer it before you decide

FLK2 · Property Practice

Question

A buyer completes the purchase of registered freehold land with the help of a mortgage. Completion has taken place and the transfer has been signed, but before the buyer’s solicitor submits the application to register the transfer and the mortgage, a burglar unconnected with either party breaks into the property. Which of the following correctly describes the buyer’s position at the moment of the break-in?

AThe buyer already holds the legal estate, because completion itself passes legal title to registered land

BThe buyer holds only an equitable interest, since the legal estate does not pass until registration is completed

CThe buyer holds no interest at all in the property until the application to register is submitted

DThe buyer’s lender, not the buyer, holds the only interest that exists before registration takes place

EThe buyer holds a legal interest, but the mortgage itself only becomes equitable pending registration

Answer B

For registered land, a transfer (and a legal mortgage) takes effect at law only once it is completed by registration. Before that, the buyer holds an equitable interest under the contract and completed transfer, even though completion has already taken place between the parties, and even though an unrelated third party’s act, such as a break-in, does not itself affect who holds which kind of interest during the registration gap.

Land Registration Act 2002, s.27.

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