above might pale into insignificance. So what are manorial rights?


They hail from the days when land (originally owned by the Lord of the Manor) was sold off to tenants and others, subject to the lord retaining rights to such things as the working of mines or minerals, sporting rights be it hunting shooting or fishing, or even the right to hold markets or fairs on the land.


Legally the term ‘Manorial rights’ covers three elements:


1) The Lordship of the Manor – being the right to the title


2) Manorial Land – the physical land belonging to the Lord


3) Manorial Rights – those described above


These three elements may exist together or be split into separate ownerships.


The reason why this subject should be given attention by all land owners is that the legislation governing the way such rights are recorded is due to change soon. The governing legislation, the Land Registration Act (2002) (LRA 2002) was designed to simplify and modernise the law relating to land registration and deal with outdated issues of rights over


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land and facilitate e-conveyancing.


The changes brought in by the 2002 Act required that those claiming rights should register them at the Land Registry and gave the claimants ten years in which to register them. That ten year period will expire at midnight on 12 October 2013.


Currently, manorial rights bind a purchaser of land or property whether or not the rights are even known to exist. As “overriding interests”, manorial rights can continue to affect land whether or not those rights are registered at the Land Registry. However, as from the 13th October 2013 these manorial rights will no longer bind a purchaser of land if the rights are not registered.


In the case of Minerals Rights uncertainty over ownership of the right could be a highly expensive oversight or in the case of sporting rights for those organisations who find such activities unacceptable, finding out that someone is able to shoot over land that they own could be a huge source of embarrassment and irritation.


Many organisations which Knight Frank advise have ‘acquired’ their land, be it a few acres or a large portfolio, via a number of different sources. For example the London boroughs have


acquired by compulsory purchase (eg The Green Belt (London and the Home Counties) Act 1938), charities through legacy donations, for many by strategic purchases, or in most cases via a combination of these 3 means.


What seems clear to me is that with large portfolios assembled via a large number of different transactions and types of transactions, the subject of who owns which rights is not easily identifiable. Furthermore, there is the additional subject of other rights and restrictions (such as a bar on development) unconnected with manorial rights (and unaffected by the legislation) and which are held by an often very distant previous owner.


Given the change in legislation next year, the on-going austerity drive, and the increased purchases and sales by institutional land owners, this appears to be a good time to research and identify such rights and consider them as part of the whole portfolio.


Institutional landowners who do not own the manorial rights over their land might expect to have Land Registry applications lodged against them while those that have sold land but not specifically registered such rights might look more closely at whether they are able to and whether they should take action.


THE TERRIER - Summer 2012


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