Whenever two or more people own land together, or a title carries rights that benefit or burden it, a conveyancer has to know exactly what is owned, by whom, and what must be done to pass clean title to a buyer. Getting this right protects your client from inheriting someone else's obligations — or losing money to interests that were never properly dealt with.
This lesson builds your understanding step by step, from how co-ownership is structured through to clearing problems off the title on a sale.
- Co-ownership Structure and Types — how legal and beneficial title split, and the difference between joint tenancies and tenancies in common.
- Presumptions of Beneficial Ownership — how the law presumes the beneficial interest is held for domestic and business purchases.
- Severance — how a joint tenancy is converted to a tenancy in common, and the methods that work.
- The Form A Restriction and Selling on Death — what the restriction signals and what a surviving owner must do before selling.
- Overreaching — how a buyer takes free of beneficial interests, and when it fails.
- Encumbrances and Covenants — what burdens land, where it is recorded, and how covenants run.
- Workarounds for Positive Covenants — the devices conveyancers use when positive burdens won't pass.
- Dealing with Covenants and Charges on a Sale — practical solutions for problem covenants and mortgages.
- Encumbrances in Unregistered Land — how protection and searches differ without a register.