Under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 section 65, an order made by a local planning authority, subject to confirmation by the Secretary of State for the Environment, requiring a person having an interest in land to provide the public with certain rights of access. Such an order can be made only where a local planning authority is unable to secure an access agreement.

A record which (under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974) must be maintained by the occupier of a building and in which brief details of all accidents sustained by those employed within the building must be kept.

A business which provides details of housing accommodation to let, usually looking to the prospective tenant for a free or commission. The activities of such firms are restricted by the Accommodation Agencies Act 1953, which makes it an offence to demand or accept any payment merely for registering or undertaking to register a person’s residential tenancy requirements or for supplying or undertaking to supply addresses or other particulars of houses to let.

1. Land which, while having potential for development with buildings, is meanwhile put to temporary use.

2. Sometimes understood to mean land close to market towns and used by butchers and others for holding animals temporarily prior to their disposal.

On the acquisition of a property, or part of a property, by an authority having powers of compulsory purchase, works carried out by the authority to other property belonging to the same owner, so as to mitigate loss or damage to the latter property resulting from the acquisition. Typical examples would be the erection or reinstatement of a fence or wall or the diversion of drains or other services. The term is also applied colloquially to works carried out by the owner whose costs are reimbursed by the acquiring authority.

This is “the purchase of a release from an obligation, whether arising under contract or tort, by means of any valuable consideration, not being the actual performance of the obligation itself. The accord is the agreement by which the obligation is discharged. The satisfaction is the consideration which makes the agreement operative”. (British Russian Gazette and Trade Outlook v Associated Newspapers Ltd (1933).)

A term used by the Stock Exchange to name the principal division of its calendar. Accounts run usually for ten working days, each account being identified by a letter and a number, eg 6F. All bargains carried out during a particular account period are settled on one day – usually the second Monday following the end of the account (account day).

See PROFITS BASIS.

A natural increase in an area of land caused either by the gradual accumulation of silt or other deposits from a river or the sea or by dereliction, ie the retreat of the sea exposing new land. Cf ALLUVION.

At a given time, the accumulated amount of depreciation which has been entered in the accounts for a particular asset.

The unpaid interest accumulated from an investment or a loan.

The rate of interest at which it is known or assumed that an annual sinking fund will grow. It may be expressed as gross or net of income taxation but, except in the case of a gross fund, can accumulate only at the net rate.

Confirmation (in a title deed) that a named party may see and have copies of relevant deeds not in his possession, with an undertaking by the holder of the deeds to keep them safely, eg on a part disposal of land the vendor gives such an acknowledgement and undertaking to the purchaser in relation to the deeds of the whole.

By custom, a phrase indicating that a right of ownership in land will theoretically extend both up to heaven and down to the centre of the earth.

A local authority, government department or other body exercising a statutory power of compulsory purchase or of acquiring a property by agreement in advance of (or under threat of) compulsory purchase.

A proceeding in a civil court.

An area selected by a local planning authority for comprehensive treatment by development, redevelopment or improvement of the whole or part of the area, or by a combination of such measures, the proposals being set out in an action area plan.

The equivalent to specific performance in England and Wales.

An arrangement, additional to the routine duty of looking after the buildings as they are, whereby property managers undertake to keep a watching brief on properties under their management with a view to advising their principals when action should be taken in relation to the property concerned. It includes recommending the rearrangement of terms with the tenants to release marriage value, the disposal of properties with disappointing growth prospects, the purchase of adjoining properties and carrying out physical improvements or redevelopment. See PROPERTY PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT.

A trust in which the trustees have duties beyond merely handing over the trust properties to the beneficiaries, eg obligations to safeguard or dispose of the trust property. Cf BARE TRUST.