Certain rights over land, such as sporting rights and rights to mines or minerals forming part of the lordship title - known as manorial rights - will have to be registered before 13 October 2013 or they will be lost on a subsequent sale of the land to which they relate. Manorial rights are a type of "overriding interest", that is, an interest in land which, until now, has not usually required registration against the title at the Land Registry but has been protected by law so as to be binding on purchasers of the land, even if they do not know of their existence. However, on and after 13 October 2013, certain types of overriding interest, including manorial rights, must actually be registered at the Land Registry, otherwise they will be lost when the relevant land is next sold.
To avoid losing such rights, an application has to be made to the Land Registry to put a notice of manorial rights on the appropriate registered title (or a caution over unregistered land) before 13 October 2013. In this briefing note, we explain further the nature of manorial rights, what you will have to do to register them and whether trustees have any special obligations to register them.
Lords of the Manor and manorial rights
Manorial rights are part of the bundle of rights which belonged to, and were usually exercised by, the Lord of the Manor. Importantly, manorial rights might have been kept even when the Lord disposed of manorial land. The main manorial rights which a Lord of the Manor can exercise are:
- Sporting rights;
- Rights to mines or minerals;
- Rights to hold fairs or markets; and
- Rights of common (grazing).
However, manorial rights will generally only exist in respect of land that was formerly "copyhold" of the manor, or land that was enclosed following an Enclosure Award. Copyhold was an old form of land tenure that was finally abolished only in 1922.
What do I have to do to protect manorial rights?
In order to apply to the Land Registry to put a notice of manorial rights on the appropriate registered title (or a caution over unregistered land), you would have to establish:
- Ownership of the manor;
- Identification of the area of land within the manor;
- Which rights are still enjoyed; and
- That the land in question was previously copyhold of the manor.
In considering whether or not this might affect you, there are two elements to consider: 1) Are you a Lord of the Manor?
2) If so, can you identify:
- The extent of the land in the manor, both now and in the past?
- Are there any manorial rights still in existence which you might hold as a result of being Lord of the Manor? These might be rights over your own land but, more importantly, over land which the Lord of the Manor has sold in the past;
Do you have an obligation to investigate these matters?
As this is a time-consuming and potentially expensive exercise, you as an individual Lord of the Manor are of course free to ignore the matter.
If you are a trustee, however, you have a duty to preserve trust assets. If you fail to do so, you could, at worst, be personally liable to the beneficiaries of the trust for any loss. Therefore, if you are a trustee or act for a trustee, it is important to at least consider whether manorial rights might be owned by the trust and, if they are, then to assess whether their value or potential value would justify the cost of registration.
Taking further action
The value or potential value of manorial rights might be difficult to ascertain. Mineral rights might be more valuable than, say, a right to hold a fair or market (depending of course on the geology of the manor). Apart from reviewing the title documents, research might have to be undertaken in your local county record office which can be time consuming.
We would be happy to assist you by checking your title deeds. We might also be able to suggest a suitable historical researcher and pass to them the relevant historical information.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
