Law of Property (Amendment) Act 1924

TRANSITIONAL PROVISIONS

Party structures and open spaces.

40 The following paragraph shall be inserted at the end of the Third Schedule to the principal Act:—

“5 (1) Where, immediately before the commencement of this Act, a party wall or other party structure is held in undivided shares, the ownership thereof shall be deemed to be severed vertically as between the respective owners, and the owner of each part shall have such rights to support and of user over the rest of the structure as may be requisite for conferring rights corresponding to those subsisting at the commencement of this Act.

(2) Where, immediately before the commencement of this Act, an open space of land (with or without any building used in common for the purposes of any adjoining land) is held in undivided shares, in right whereof each owner has rights of access and user over the open space, the ownership thereof shall vest in the Public Trustee on the statutory trusts which shall be executed only with the leave of the court, and, subject to any order to the contrary, each person who would have been a tenant in common, shall, until the open space is conveyed to a purchaser, have rights of access and user over the open space corresponding to those which would have subsisted if the tenancy in common had remained subsisting.

(3) Any person interested may apply to the court for an order declaring the rights and interests under the foregoing provisions, of the persons interested in any such party structure or open space, or generally may apply in relation to those provisions, and the court may make such order as it thinks fit.

(4) The provisions as to undivided shares do not, save as mentioned in this paragraph, apply to the party structures and open spaces aforesaid.”

Mortgages not protected by deposit of documents.

41 Paragraphs 1 and 2 of the Second Schedule to the principal Act shall have effect as if the following sub-paragraph were inserted at the end of each of those paragraphs:—

“(9) A mortgage affecting a legal estate made before the commencement of this Act which is not protected, either by a deposit of documents of title relating to the legal estate or by registration as a land charge, shall not, as against a purchaser in good faith without notice thereof, obtain any benefit by reason of being converted into a legal mortgage by this section, but shall, in favour of such purchaser, be deemed to remain an equitable interest.

This sub-paragraph does not apply to mortgages or charges registered or protected under the Land Transfer Acts, or to mortgages or charges registered in a local deeds register.”