Page:EB1911 - Volume 07.djvu/64

Rh In its popular usage the word “conveyance” signifies the document employed to carry out a purchase of land. But the term “conveyancing” is of much wider import, and comprises the preparation and completion of all kinds of legal instruments. A well-known branch of the conveyancer’s business is the investigation of title—an important function in the case of purchases or mortgages of real estate. With personal estate (other than leasehold) he has perhaps not so much concern. Chattels are usually transferred by delivery, and stocks or shares by means of printed instruments which can be bought at a law-stationer’s. The common settlements and wills, however, deal wholly or mainly with personal property; and an interest in settled personalty is frequently the subject of a mortgage. Of late years, also, there has been an enormous increase in the volume of conveyancing business in connexion with limited joint-stock companies.

In the preparation of legal documents the practitioner is much assisted by the use of precedents. These are outlines or models of instruments of all kinds, exhibiting in accepted legal phraseology their usual form and contents with additions and variations adapted to particular circumstances. Collections of them have been in use from early times, certainly since printing became common. The modern precedent is, upon the whole, concise and businesslike. The prolixity which formerly characterized most legal documents has largely disappeared, mainly through the operation of statutes which enable many clauses previously inserted at great length to be, in some cases, e.g. covenants for title, incorporated by the use of a few prescribed words, and in others safely omitted altogether. The Solicitors’ Remuneration Act 1881, has also assisted the process of curtailment, for there is now little or no connexion between the length of a deed and the cost of its preparation. So long as the draftsman adheres to recognized legal phraseology and to the well-settled methods of carrying out legal operations, there is no reason why modern instruments should not be made as terse and businesslike as possible.

It is not usual for land to be sold without a formal agreement in writing being entered into. This precaution is due, partly to the Statute of Frauds (§ 4), which renders a contract for the sale of land unenforceable by action “unless

the agreement upon which such action shall be brought, or some memorandum or note thereof, shall be in writing and signed by the party to be charged therewith or some other person thereunto by him lawfully authorized,” and partly to the fact that there are few titles which can with prudence be exposed to all the requisitions that a purchaser under an “open contract” is entitled by law to make. Such a purchaser may, for example, require a forty years’ title (Vendor and Purchaser Act 1874). Under an open contract a vendor is presumed to be selling the fee-simple in possession, free from any incumbrance, or liability, or restriction as to user or otherwise; and if he cannot deduce a title of the statutory length, or procure an incumbrance or restriction to be removed, the purchaser may repudiate the contract. The preparation of an agreement for sale involves accordingly an examination of the vendor’s title, and the exercise of skill and judgment in deciding how the vendor may be protected against trouble and expense without prejudice to the sale. Upon a sale by auction the agreement is made up of (1) the particulars, which describe the property; (2) the conditions of sale, which state the terms upon which it is offered; and (3) the memorandum or formal contract at the foot of the conditions, which incorporates by reference the particulars and conditions, names or sufficiently refers to the vendor, and is signed by the purchaser after the sale. The object of the agreement, whether the sale is by private contract or by auction, is to define accurately what is sold, to provide for the length of title and the evidence in support of or in connexion with the title which is to be required except so far as it is intended that the general law shall regulate the rights of the parties, and to fix the times at which the principal steps in the transaction are to be taken. It is also usual to provide for the payment of interest at a prescribed rate upon the purchase money if the completion shall be delayed beyond the day fixed for any cause other than the vendor’s wilful default, and also that the vendor shall be at liberty to rescind the contract without paying costs or compensation if the purchaser insists upon any requisition or objection which the vendor is unable or, upon the ground of expense or other reasonable ground, is unwilling to comply with or remove. Upon a sale by auction it is the rule to require a deposit to be paid by way of security to the vendor against default on the part of the purchaser.

The signature of the agreement is followed by the delivery to the purchaser or his solicitor of the abstract of title, which is an epitome of the various instruments and events under and in consequence of which the vendor derives

his title. A purchaser is entitled to an abstract at the vendor’s expense unless otherwise stipulated. It begins with the instrument fixed by the contract for the commencement of the title, or, if there has been no agreement upon the subject, with an instrument of such character and date as is prescribed by the law in the absence of stipulation between the parties. From its commencement as so determined the abstract, if properly prepared, shows the history of the title down to the sale; every instrument, marriage, birth, death, or other fact or event constituting a link in the chain of title, being sufficiently set forth in its proper order. The next step is the verification of the abstract on the purchaser’s behalf by a comparison of it with the originals of the deeds, the probates of the wills, and office copies of the instruments of record through which the title is traced. The vendor is bound to produce the original documents, except such as are of record or have been lost or destroyed, but, unless otherwise stipulated, the expense of producing those which are not in his possession falls upon the purchaser (Conveyancing Act 1881). After being thus verified, the abstract is perused by the purchaser’s advisers with the object of seeing whether a title to the property sold is deduced according to the contract, and what evidence, information or objection, in respect of matters appearing or arising upon the abstract, ought to be called for or taken. For this purpose it is necessary to consider the legal effect of the abstracted instruments, whether they have been properly completed, whether incumbrances, adverse interests, defects, liabilities in respect of duties, or any other burdens or restrictions disclosed by the abstract, have been already got rid of or satisfied, or remain to be dealt with before the completion of the sale. The result of the consideration of these matters is embodied in “requisitions upon title,” which are delivered to the vendor’s solicitors within a time usually fixed for the purpose by the contract. In making or insisting upon requisitions regard is had, among other things, to any special conditions in the contract dealing with points as to which evidence or objection might otherwise have been required or taken, and to a variety of provisions contained in the Vendor and Purchaser Act 1874, and the Conveyancing Act 1881, which apply, except so far as otherwise agreed, and of which the following are the most important: (1) Recitals, statements and descriptions of facts, matters and parties contained in instruments twenty years old at the date of the contract are, unless proved inaccurate, to be taken as sufficient evidence of the truth of such facts, matters and descriptions; (2) a purchaser cannot require the production of, or make any requisition or objection in respect of, any document dated before the commencement of the title; (3) the cost of obtaining evidence and information not in the vendor’s possession must be borne by the purchaser. The possibility of the rescission clause now commonly found in contracts for the sale of real estate being exercised in order to avoid compliance with an onerous requisition, is also an important factor in the situation. The requisitions are in due course replied to, and further requisitions may arise out of the answers. A summary method of obtaining a judicial determination of questions connected with the contract, but not affecting its validity, is provided by the Vendor and Purchaser Act 1874. Before completion it is usual for the purchaser to cause searches to be made in various official registers for matters required to be entered therein, such as judgments, land charges, and pending