Zain owned the fee simple of three neighbouring, south-facing houses. Each had a garden. Zain occupied the central property known as Sea-View

LAND LAW SUMMATIVE ESSAY
INSTRUCTIONS:
Carefully read the scenario and answer the questions. Show your reasoning, elaborate a critical discussion
and support your argument (case law, journals, statutes, legislations, etc.). Do not exceed the word limit of
2300 words, this includes footnotes but excludes the bibliography. Use OSCOLA format, 12-point font Times
New Roman and a minimum of 1.5 line spacing.

SCENARIO:
Zain owned the fee simple of three neighbouring, south-facing houses. Each had a garden. Zain occupied
the central property known as Sea-View. To the west of Sea-View was Treetops; and to the east of Sea-
View was the property known as Deep Valley. Zain used to walk across the garden of Treetops as a shortcut
to a local shopping centre called Lakeside.
In 2017, Zain agreed to allow five friends to rent Treetops for a year; Alfred, Beth, Charlotte, Danyaal and
Ephraim. The friends moved in in June 2017. Alfred owned an electric car and Zain would allow Alfred to
park his car on the driveway to Sea-View beside the only battery recharging point situated on any of the
three properties. Zain allowed the other four friends to park their cars on the driveway to Sea-View as
Treetops was only served by an over-grown, pot-holed track. It was a happy arrangement and Zain used to
wave to the friends as he walked across the garden of Treetops whenever he visited Lakeside.
In June 2018 Zain needed to raise some money so he decided to sell Treetops and offered the property to
the five friends. Alfred, Beth, Charlotte, Danyaal and Ephraim discussed the matter between them and
decided that if they pooled their resources, they could afford to buy Treetops from Zain to provide a house
for themselves while they trained as rocket scientists. Each contributed what they could to the purchase
price of £300,000 and the Treetops was conveyed to Alfred, Beth, Charlotte, Danyaal and Ephraim. Zain did
not ask the friends about the arrangements between themselves and the deed of conveyance stated simply
that Zain conveyed the land to Alfred, Beth, Charlotte, Danyaal and Ephraim as “legal and beneficial joint
tenants”.
In 2019, Alfred was disappointed to discover that Beth had begun a relationship with Ephraim. He sent an
email to all the other four friends saying: “This is not what I wanted at all and I don’t like it. I’m moving out.
I think we ought to sell Treetops as soon as possible and you pay me 40% of the proceeds – after all, that’s
what I contributed to the purchase price. I don’t care how you do it, just get on with it. Sorry. Lossa luv,
Alfred”. Charlotte was on holiday at the time and saw Alfred’s email on her smart phone whilst lying on a
beach in Mongolia. She deleted the email from her inbox and forgot about it. Danyaal never received the
email at all; unfortunately, Alfred had mis-spelled Danyaal’s email address. Beth downloaded, printed and
read Alfred’s email whilst at home at Treetops. She showed the email to Ephraim when he got home from
college. Ephraim told Beth to tear it up and throw it in the dustbin, which Beth did.
That same evening Alfred discovered that Ephraim had treated Alfred’s email with such contempt. Alfred
resolved to get his revenge by staying at Treetops and win Beth’s affections for himself. Alfred told Beth
and Ephraim that he had changed his mind, that he would be staying at Treetops and that he did not want
the house sold.
A week later, Charlotte was killed while returning from her holiday, when her aircraft struck a yak on take-
off and burst into flames. In her will, Charlotte left all her assets to her brother, Gilbert.
In 2020, Alfred decided that he needed to shower Beth with expensive jewellery in order to gain her love.
To raise the money, Alfred borrowed heavily from the Insane Bank, in return for which he granted the

Insane Bank a charge over his interest in Treetops. In an attempt to gain even more money, Alfred bet all
his available money on a horse race. His chosen horse came last and he lost everything. When he told Beth
what had happened, Alfred and Beth laughed so hard that they both died, simultaneously.
Gilbert says he wants to move in with Ephraim and Danyaal. Danyaal says he wants to move out and so he
will be wanting to receive rent from Ephraim and Gilbert.
Now the Insane Bank is pressing for the sale of Treetops to recover the sum due to it. Ephraim told Danyaal
that he doesn’t want the land sold as he has nowhere else to live. Ephraim went abroad on business earlier
in the year and now cannot leave that country due to local Covid restrictions. He refuses to discuss the
issue with anyone, including any prospective buyer of the property, until he is allowed to return. The bank
says that Treetops will be worth £10,000 more if it can be sold with a right to access over and to park on,
the driveway to Sea-View. It will be worth at least £50,000 more if the land includes the right to park an
electric car beside the (only) battery recharging point on the driveway of Sea-view. The bank says that
Treetops will be worth £100,000 less if any third party has the right to walk over the garden of Treetops.

Advise Danyaal, with legal authority:
A) Who now has the legal and equitable interests in Treetops and why; and whether Danyaal can claim a
rent from Ephraim and Gilbert if Danyaal moves out of Treetops;
B) Whether, why and how, the Insane Bank can force a sale of Treetops;
C) Whether and why, a purchaser of Treetops would acquire the property with vacant possession;
D) Whether and why, a purchaser of Treetops would have the right to park cars on the driveway of Sea-
View;
E) Whether and why, a purchaser of Treetops would have the right to park an electric car beside the
battery recharging point on the driveway of Sea-View; and
F) Whether and why, a purchaser of Treetops can stop an owner of Sea-View from walking over the garden
of Treetops.