Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989
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| Long title | An Act to make new provision with respect to deeds and their execution and contracts for the sale or other disposition of interests in land; and to abolish the rule of law known as the rule in Bain v. Fothergill. |
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| Citation | 1989 c. 34 |
| Territorial extent | England and Wales |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 27 July 1989 |
| Commencement | 27 September 1989 (in part) 31 July 1990 (remainder) |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Text of the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk | |
The Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989 (c 34) is a United Kingdom Act of Parliament, which laid down a number of significant revisions to English property law.
The Act introduced several distinct reforms:
S. 1(3) of the Act provides that:
An instrument is validly executed as a deed by an individual if, and only if—
In 2008, the High Court of England and Wales expressed in obiter that the recycling of signature pages from earlier drafts rendered the agreements in question invalid as deeds under the Act. Taken together with previous jurisprudence on the execution of documents in the Court of Appeal for England and Wales, the Law Society of England and Wales has issued guidance as to what steps are necessary in order to validly execute deeds and other documents executed in counterpart in electronic or virtual closings:
Section 2 deals with contracts for the creation or sale of legal estates or interests in land, and not with documents that transfer such estates or interests. The required scope for such contracts is defined in s. 2:
The Court of Appeal has noted which types of agreements fall either within the Act or outside of it:
... Section 2 is concerned with contracts for the creation or sale of legal estates or interests in land, not with documents which actually create or transfer such estates or interests. So a contract to transfer a freehold or a lease in the future, a contract to grant a lease in the future, or a contract for a mortgage in the future, are all within the reach of the section, provided of course the ultimate subject matter is land. However, an actual transfer, conveyance or assignment, an actual lease, or an actual mortgage are not within the scope of section 2 at all.
The "single document" requirement is strictly applied:
... Its effect is merciless. An appropriately signed document purporting to amount to a contract for the sale or other disposition of an interest in land will not in fact create a valid contract unless it includes all the expressly agreed terms of the sale or other disposition. If it fails do so it will be void...
The Court has given guidance on circumstances where a land contract can be avoided under s. 2:
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