House of Commons - Manorial Rights

Manorial Rights - Justice Committee Contents

1 Background to this inquiry

What are manorial rights?

1. The Land Registry describes manorial rights as rights which were retained by lords of the manor in England and Wales when land became freehold in the early 20^th century.[1] Those rights can include rights to mines and some minerals, sporting rights such as hunting, shooting and fishing, and rights to hold fairs and markets. When copyhold tenure was abolished in 1926 and converted into freehold in a process known as 'enfranchisement', these rights were preserved indefinitely unless ended by written agreement between the lord and tenant. In its written evidence, the Ministry of Justice describes copyhold tenure as:[2]

tenure of land "by copy of Court Roll". The roots of copyhold date back to before the Norman Conquest. The history is complicated but in brief Court Rolls of the manor came to record the title of the tenants of the manor to their properties and the tenants were given a copy of the entry recording their title. This is apparently the origin of the term "copyhold". Title to copyhold land was, or became in practice, inheritable and transferable subject to the customary rents and services to which it was subject. By the seventeenth century it seems that copyhold land was held by rent rather than for services. Nonetheless the legal form lingered on until all remaining copyhold land was "enfranchised" into freehold tenure on 1 January 1926.[3]

2. Since these changes the law related to manorial rights remained largely unchanged in England and Wales until the Land Registration Act 2002 (referred to in this report as "the 2002 Act") which attempted to increase the transparency of such interests by requiring that they be placed on the land register.[4] The meaning of manorial rights for the purposes of the 2002 Act was explained by the Law Commission in a preceding consultation document as being the following rights of the lord of the manor in respect of former copyhold land or of the copyhold tenant:

· the lord's sporting rights;

· the lord's or tenant's rights to mines and minerals;

· the lord's right to hold fairs and markets;

· the tenant's rights of common; and

· the lord's or tenant's liability for the construction, maintenance and repair of dykes, ditches, canals and other works.[5]

3. As this inquiry has been instigated as a consequence of the changes in the 2002 Act, this is the definition of manorial rights that we have used for the purposes of our inquiry. However, the last category was made registrable under legislation from the 1920s and is therefore usually known to landowners, while the tenant's rights of common would not be considered the established right of the lord over land owned by someone else, and are anyway required to be recorded in the registers of common land under the Commons Registrations Act 1965. Therefore, it is the first three manorial rights listed above that are considered within the primary scope of our inquiry. The Ministry notes that it is "generally accepted that the first two of these … are the most important".[6] It is important to note that in most cases the exercise of the lord's rights requires the consent of the landowner. Other associated issues, such as manorial waste, relate to freehold land often still owned by the lord and are therefore not relevant to another landowner's registered title nor this inquiry.[7]

4. While many current owners of manorial rights are individuals who have inherited such rights, the process of enfranchisement in the 1920s also enabled lords of the manor to sell their remaining rights to third parties. As Dr Paul Stafford noted, that there remains to this day "an active market for such rights and also for lordships, which can change hands for five or six figure sums."[8] In one of the areas where claims of manorial rights have caused controversy, Anglesey, those claims were made by a person who bought the title of lord of the manor in 1992, although it should be noted that he has subsequently withdrawn the claims (see paragraph 15 below). Equally, manorial rights are held by charities and institutions, for example the Church Commissioners and some Oxbridge colleges.[9]

How the Land Registration Act 2002 changed the status of manorial rights

5. Prior to the 2002 Act it was often difficult to find out whether a property was affected or bound by manorial rights as they did not have to appear in the land register. In some cases if rights were not contained in the register they could be recorded in old deeds to a property, but in many cases they would simply not be known to the freehold property owner. Following changes introduced by the 2002 Act, manorial rights lost their 'overriding interest' in relation to properties if they were not protected by being registered before 13 October 2013. This means that, following the deadline, the holders of the manorial rights will lose these rights when the affected property is sold if those rights are not registered before the sale. We heard that manorial rights owners, and in particular charitable organisations or trustees of estates, were often advised by their lawyers that it was their duty to register claims to protect a potential asset from extinguishment.[10] The Land Registry summarised the position as follows:

PURPOSE OF THE REFORMS

6. Overriding interests are third parties' property rights that bind a purchaser of the affected land even though the rights are not mentioned in the register of title (commonly called "the land register" or "the register") kept by the Land Registry, and even though the purchaser may not know about them. The 2001 Law Commission and Land Registry report, Land Registration for the Twenty-First Century-A Conveyancing Revolution, which contained the draft Bill which was subsequently enacted as the 2002 Act, commented that:

The range of interests that are presently overriding is significant. They include many easements (whether or not these have been expressly granted or reserved), the rights of persons in actual occupation, leases granted for 21 years or less, as well as some obscure interests that may have very serious effects on the registered proprietor (such as manorial rights). Overriding interests therefore present a very significant impediment to one of the main objectives of the Bill, namely that the register should be as complete a record of the title as it can be, with the result that it should be possible for title to land to be investigated almost entirely on-line. The Bill seeks to restrict such interests so far as possible.[12]

7. The 2001 Report, which was the result of a six-year investigation into land registration practice, recommended that the overriding nature of certain rights including manorial rights (i.e. their persistence despite not being registered) should be "phased out over a period of ten years".[13] The intention was to phase out the overriding nature of some rights and instead require the entry of a notice on the register in order to make the register and land ownership more transparent, so that anyone buying a piece of land or property would see what they owned and have more information about what matters they were subject to.[14] The Ministry's written evidence to us explained further that the underlying policy of the 2002 Act was to make the land register "as complete a register as is practicable of the rights affecting a registered property" in order to make it easier for prospective purchasers to investigate the title of a property, and that the changes would prevent the risk in the future of a property being purchased "in ignorance of the fact it is subject to manorial rights which will then bind the new owner".[15] The 2001 Report did not recommend that these rights be removed altogether. The consultation document which led to the report and 2002 Act, while stating that manorial rights were anomalous and "could" be abolished, suggested the financial implications of abolition did not make this option a "viable strategy for reform".[16] Nevertheless, the door was not closed to a further review and the consultation document went on to state that "any such strategy would have to be conducted as a separate law reform exercise with full regard to its implications".[17]

Our inquiry

8. As a consequence of the coming into effect of the relevant provisions in the 2002 Act, in particular the passing of the October 2013 deadline for registrations which led to a large number of registrations being made around this time, we received a range of representations from Members of Parliament on their constituents' behalf as well as individual members of the public affected by registrations made on their properties. These all called for the abolition of manorial rights and/or a review of the law in this respect. In response to these representations we wrote to the Law Commission and the Government in early 2014 asking whether there were plans to review the law concerning manorial rights in order to consider whether such rights should be abolished. Responding to us in April 2014, the Government stated that, while it was aware of "consternation" in some areas related to the registration of manorial rights, it was "not aware of any actual problems in practice" and therefore did not plan to review the law on manorial rights or request the Law Commission to do so.[18]

9. In its response to us in March 2014 the Law Commission said it currently had no plans to carry out a law reform review in relation to manorial rights and that it had anyway recently agreed its 12th Programme of Law Reform.[19] The letter did note that the Government could refer a specific project to the Commission outside of its law reform programme, but it also stated that "a project whose objective was the abolition of property rights encounters some particular obstacles, and before considering whether to take on such a project we would want to know that government has considered the implications of taking such a step and was prepared to make the necessary provision for compensation".[20]

10. In light of the correspondence and representations received, we decided to carry out a short inquiry into manorial rights in order to instigate a debate on the current situation and inform any possible future review. We invited evidence addressing any aspect of the current laws and procedures in relation to manorial rights, but in particular on the following points:

· The recent incidence of manorial rights being exercised, and the impact upon landowners;

· The arguments for and against the abolition of manorial rights;

· The implications of abolishing manorial rights, including the cost of any appropriate compensation that may be required.

11. In the course of our inquiry we received 33 written submissions and we held two oral evidence sessions, hearing from Kim Thomas and Amanda White, from a campaign group for Welwyn Garden City residents calling itself The Peasants' Revolt, Rhun ap Iorwerth, Assembly Member for Ynys Môn, and Albert Owen, Member of Parliament for Ynys Môn; David Towns, Director, Bond Dickinson LLP, Roger Tetlow, Senior Legal Adviser, Country Land and Business Association, and Timothy Troman, Chartered Mineral Surveyor, Wardell Armstrong LLP; Professor Judith Bray, University of Buckingham, and Christopher Jessel, retired solicitor; and Lord Faulks QC, Minister of State for Civil Justice and Legal Policy, Ministry of Justice, and Steve Coveney, Head of Registration Legal Services, Land Registry. We are grateful to all those who gave written and oral evidence to us in this inquiry.

The Law Commission's current project on the 2002 Act

12. While the Law Commission currently has no plans to review the law related to manorial rights, we note that in recent years the Law Commission has planned to carry out a project related to feudal law more widely. The 9th Programme of Law Reform launched in 2005 included a project to examine the case for the reform of feudal law and the implications of statutory intervention. However, the 10th Programme published in June 2008 stated it had not been possible to carry out this work because of the demands of other projects, and that it considered the project should further be delayed until the 11th Programme. At the time of the publication of 11th Programme in July 2011 it was stated that Commissioners had taken the view that other proposed law reform projects offered the potential for greater public benefit than work on feudal land law. We also note that the current 12^th Programme includes a project on the mechanics of the Land Registration Act 2002 for which the Law Commission will publish a consultation paper in late 2015 and a report and draft Bill in late 2017.[21] The Law Commission describes the project on its website as "a wide-ranging review of the 2002 Act, with a view to amendment where elements of the Act could be improved in light of experience with its operation".[22]

The cases of Welwyn Garden City and Anglesey

13. Although not exclusively so, much of the written evidence received has been from campaigners and individuals for the abolition of manorial rights who have direct experience in relation to the registration of claims made against land in Welwyn Garden City and Anglesey respectively. During the course of the inquiry we have drawn on and examined some of the principal objections raised by those affected in these two cases including:[23]

· The fact that property owners were not aware of the existence of a claim to such rights against their property upon purchase.

· The cost incurred by residents in objecting to the claims-primarily legal advice and research costs relating to the validity of the claim.

· The impact on future property sales and access to loans.

· Possibility of exercise of rights in public places.

· The role of the Land Registry in the process of notification.

· The burden of proof in relation to verifying a claim.

14. In the Welwyn Garden City case, in October 2013 around 500 households in the Handside area received notices from the Land Registry informing them that Lord Salisbury had registered claims to manorial rights over their properties. From evidence received, it seems that while many residents submitted initial objections to the claim, following correspondence with the Land Registry and the lawyers acting on behalf of Lord Salisbury, Bond Dickinson LLP, most objections have not been pursued, aside from those notices issued to properties that subsequently were shown to be outside the area to which Lord Salisbury was making his claim. The primary reason cited in the evidence received was the cost that would be incurred by pursuing their objections.[24] Those affected in this case were told by Bond Dickinson that there was no intention for the rights to be exercised at present and that the rights were registered simply to avoid their loss and protect their long-term value.[25]

15. The claim in Anglesey was made by Stephen Paul Hayes who owns the title of Lord of the Manor of Treffos, which he bought in 1992. In October 2013 around 4,000 Anglesey residents were sent notices by the Land Registry detailing Mr Hayes' claim. In this case around half of the residents objected and following considerable local public pressure, including research carried out by individuals contesting the claim regarding the extent of the Treffos Manor and its boundaries, Mr Hayes agreed to withdraw all his original rights claims.[26] We also received individual pieces of evidence citing issues with manorial rights registrations in Bewcastle (Cumbria), Lincolnshire, and Delamere (Cheshire).[27] However, based on the statistics provided in the next Chapter, the various areas from which we have received representations on the registration of manorial rights would seem to account for only a small proportion of total registrations made since the 2002 Act.

1 Land Registry Practice Guide 22: Manors Back

2 Written evidence received, in particular the respective submissions from Dr Paul Stafford (MAR0039) and Christopher Jessel, (MAR0004) provides a fuller account of manorial right historical origins. Back

3 Ministry of Justice (MAR0031) Back

4 While the Ministry is responsible for the general land law of England and Wales, of which the law relating to manorial rights forms part, it is the Land Registry, an agency of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which is responsible for the registration of ownership of land and property in England and Wales. Back

5 Law Commission, Land Registration for the Twenty-First Century - A Consultation Document, 1998, p103 Back

6 Ministry of Justice (MAR0031) Back

7 See for example the case highlighted in Dr Paul Stafford (MAR0039). Back

8 Dr Paul Stafford (MAR0039) Back

9 See The Church Commissioners for England (MAR0018) and Michael Edward Turner (MAR0033) Back

10 Q 18 Back

11 Land Registry Public Guide 25, December 2013 Back

12 Law Commission, Land Registration for the Twenty-First Century - A Conveyancing Revolution, July 2001, para 2.24 Back