This glossary of terms has been composed by FIRST STRATA to provide you with an easily accessible and comprehensive description of the many terms frequently used in all aspects of land sales.
We trust you will find it both useful and informative.
The actual or deemed abandonment of, or failure to assert, a legal right.
Originally devised in the 1920s by the late Mr P J Waldram, a surveyor, a diagram which is used for testing the adequacy of daylight in a room. The effect of any obstruction to light in a room is plotted on a grid and that proportion of the unobstructed light from the sky available for illuminating individual points in the room can be calculated from the diagram. See RIGHT OF LGIHT; SUNLIGHT AND DAYLIGHT CODE.
In levying a distress, the act of the bailiff in listing the goods to be distrained but leaving them on the premises subject to an enforceable condition that they must not be removed therefrom.
A footpath created in pursuance of an agreement under section 35 of the Highways Act 1980, enabling the public to go over, through, under or around (other than at ground level) buildings or structures. Such agreement may provide for the local authority to be liable for its maintenance.
See Walkway.
Premises designed and built or converted for the purpose of bulk storage of raw materials or finished or partly finished goods, pending either onward transit or division into smaller batches and subsequent distribution. Cf CASH AND CARRY (WAREHOUSE); DISCOUNT WAREHOUSE; RETAIL WAREHOUSE. See BONDED WAREHOUSE; GODOWN; QUEEN'S WAREHOUSE.
Descriptive of a loan or investment where interest or dividends respectively are rolled-up. See ROLLED-UP INTEREST.
A clause, usually in a disposition of heritable property (or heritage), ie property passing to heirs on the owner's death, by which the granter undertakes that the right conveyed will be effective.
1. A document authorising an action or decision.
2. A document of warranty.
3. A document carrying the right to acquire equity shares at a pre-determined price at some future date, the right being lost if not exercised by the due date.
An express or implied undertaking of the truth of a statement, whereby the warrantor becomes legally responsible in the event of the facts being otherwise than as stated, eg a vendor may give a warranty that the property being sold is fit for a particular purpose or is in a given state of repair. Cf GUARANTEE. See SKILL AND CARE WARRANTY.
The doctrine of unlawful change, usually involving deterioration, in the physical condition of a property resulting from the positive act or neglect of the party responsible. It applies especially to a life tenant under a settlement, but also to a tenant under a lease. Cf FAIR WEAR AND TEAR. See AMELIORATING WASTE; EQUITABLE WASTE; PERMISSIVE WASTE; VOLUNTARY WASTE.
1. In common parlance, uncultivated land not used for any purpose.
2. For the purposes of section 65 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1971, this can include "any garden, vacant site or other open land" if its condition seriously injures the amenity of the area.
1. An asset which in real terms will normally depreciate in value over time, eg a leasehold interest.
2. Under the Capital Gains Tax Act 1979, section 37(1), an "asset with a predictable life not exceeding 50 years, but so that - (a) freehold land is not such as asset, whatever its nature and whatever the nature of the buildings or works thereon." See DEPRECIATION; DEPRECIATING ASSET; SCRAP VALUE.
Either:
a. a river, stream, canal or other channel for the flow of water, or
b. the bed on which it flows.
See RIPARIAN RIGHTS.
The amount charged to the occupier of a building for the supply of water and, perhaps, other related or incidental services. It may be calculated by reference to the rateable value of the property or to the quantity of water used, as measured by a meter installed on the premises.
The natural level to which underground water will rise relative to the surface of the land. It will usually vary with seasonal weather conditions and may be affected by, for example, the boring of deep wells, the construction of dams and deforestation.
Under the Transport Act 1968, a canal or inland waterway within the jurisdiction of the British Waterways Board. See COMMERICAL WATERWAY; CRUSING WATERWAY; REMAINDER WATERWAY.
Strictly, a determinable right of way to convey minerals extracted form land over another's land or to lay cables, pipes or conduits over, on or under another's land, especially one granted to a statutory undertaker. See OVERSAIL; RIGHT OF WAY.
Where there would be no other means of access, a right of way implied in favour of an isolated parcel of land surrounded by other land, part or all of which was formerly in the same ownership. It results from severance of the ownership, either by the disposal of the parcel on its own or by its retention and the disposal of the remainder. The "necessity" must exist at the time of the disposal and not arise subsequently.
See FAIR WEAR AND TEAR.
