Limitation of Actions Consultation - Law Commission

the leasehold title to the lessor. However, at the time of surrender, the lessee was
no longer the registered proprietor of the leasehold interest. Browne-Wilkinson J
found that the squatter had been correctly registered proprietor of the leasehold
interest under section 75(2) of the Registration Act 1925. The lessee was no
longer in a position to surrender the interest, and the surrender was therefore
ineffective. Browne-Wilkinson J left open the wider question whether the squatter
simply became the successor in title to the lessee, taking subject to and with the
benefit of the covenants in the lease. He also noted that until the point of
registration, the squatter would be in the same position whether the land was
registered or unregistered.
(c) Settled Land 107
6.40 Where the limitation period has expired in respect of the right of action of a tenant
for life or statutory owner of settled land, the legal estate is not extinguished until
the right of action of any beneficial owner has been barred under the provisions of
the 1980 Act. Where the beneficial owner’s right of action has not accrued or has
not been barred under the Act the estate remains vested in the tenant for life or
statutory owner and will devolve in accordance with the provisions of the Settled
Land Act 1925. 108
Where settled land is held by a statutory owner, he or she
remains able to bring an action to recover the land on behalf of the beneficial
owner even if the statutory owner’s own right of action has become time-barred. 109
6.41 Similarly, where land is held on trust, and the limitation period for an action by the
trustees to recover the land has expired, the legal estate of the trustees is not
extinguished until the right of action of any person entitled to a beneficial interest
in the land or the proceeds of sale has become barred under the 1980 Act. 110
The
trustees also remain able to bring an action on behalf of the beneficial owner
where their own right of action has become time-barred. 111
(4) The Crown and Special Corporations
6.42 Section 15(7) and part 2 of Schedule 1 of the 1980 Act modify the application of
section 15(1) in respect of actions to recover land brought by the Crown, 112
or by
spiritual or eleemosynary corporations sole (that is archbishops, bishops, vicars
and other officers in the Church of England, and corporations established for the
perpetual distribution of free alms). The limitation period for such actions is set at
thirty years instead of twelve. Where the action is to recover foreshore, 113
the
107 Under the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996, s 2 it is not now possible
to create new settlements of land within the meaning of the Settled Land Act 1925. The
1996 Act implemented recommendations contained in the Law Commission’s Report on
Transfer of Land: Trusts of Land (1989) Law Com No 181.
108 Section 18(2).
109 Section 18(4).
110 Section 18(3).
111 Section 18(4).
112 Or by the Duchy of Cornwall or the Duchy of Lancaster: s 37.
113 Foreshore is defined as “the shore and bed of the sea and of any tidal water, below the line
of the medium high tide between the spring tides and the neap tides”: Schedule 1, para
11(3).
106