Question

You are an intern in a Coventry law firm and have recently started working in the Property Department.When you arrived at work this morning, you found the email below in your inbox:

Welcome to the Property Law Team,

One of our lawyers, Janette Wrinton is very busy at the moment and would like you to assist with a matter she is dealing with.You are required to research the legal issues relevant for this case and present the findings in a written format to the lawyers responsible for your training.It is important that you research the issues in depth, present your advice in a clearly expressed, well-structured manner, and cite supporting authorities accurately using OSCOLA so that those using this research can follow up on the references.The matter you are asked to advise on concerns Samuel Smytherington-Jones, a longstanding client of the firm, who recently purchased Hetherton Hall.Unfortunately, to help an old friend out of financial difficulties and because he had always wanted to own the Hall, he purchased it for cash, making minimal enquiries about the Hall and the property rights relating to it.The purchase consisted of the Hall, and the land surrounding it, on which there are several properties.Mr. Smytherington-Jones' email read as follows:

Dear Janette,

Settling in nicely at Hetherton Hall, there's a lot of work to do on the old place and it's going to take quite an investment to bring it back to its former glory.There is a lot of land on the Estate and I'm thinking of selling some of it to offset some of the refurbishment costs.A couple of possibilities crossed my mind and I would like your advice.

Firstly, Mrs Binns, who used to be the old housekeeper before she retired, lives in Honeysuckle Cottage down in the south field.Hetherton's former owner said she could stay there after she moved out of the Housekeeper's Lodge when she retired.When I bought the place, he mentioned this to me and handed over the set of keys he kept for the cottage.He said that Mrs Binns knows she only has a licence and she could be asked to go if ever we needed the cottage.I went down there and had a look around, but it's not in good condition.A local builder has offered a large sum of money for the south field, but only if the cottage is empty, because he wants to demolish it and build starter homes on the field.Mrs Binns pays no rent, (the former owner never asked her to) and I would like to know if I can ask her to leave.

Secondly, the new housekeeper lives in the Housekeeper's Lodge with her husband.It's a small building attached to the Hall and has its own entrance, that way they don't disturb us when they're moving around.We have a set of keys to the Lodge and the connecting door with the Hall, and said that as part of their licence they should make the spare bedroom available if we are short of space in the Hall.As you know, we are thinking of hiring out the Hall as a wedding venue and the Lodge would be great as a Honeymoon Suite and a place for the bridal party to get ready.We know that the Housekeeper's parents died recently and left her a house in the village, so think now would be a good time for her to move out of the Lodge.

We will be away for a few weeks, so could you let us know when we get back.

Kind Regards,

SSJ

Have to Prepare a report for Janette of the advice she should give to SSJ, identifying the main issues, the relevant case law or statutory provisions to support your argument and any information that she would need to obtain from the client to advise further.Refer to the email for advice regarding the writing of the report.

This assignment is designed to assess learning outcomes:

Demonstrate, by analysing, reformatting and evaluating information, an understanding of the principles underlying property law with specific reference to land law;

Analyse the principles of land law and relevant case law and equitable principles as applied in practice including the legal principles relating to the co-ownership of land;

Using a range of specialist skills, demonstrate an ability to evaluate and apply the principles of land law to various hypothetical scenarios;

Analyse and evaluate proposals for reform (where applicable).