The Gazette 1967/71

existing legal estates such as life estates, estates pur autre vie and "leases" for lives and/or years would be equitable. This type of "family" as opposed to "commercial" interest would be over- reachable under the settlements proposal. In addition various interests are capable of being created by law, i.e. land obligations (see infra) in fee simple or for a term of years, charges by way of legal mortgage, rights of entry and possibilities of reverter. All other interests are equitable. (2) Abolition of Feudal Tenure This is proposed for abolition. Since the Tenure Abolition Act (Ireland) 1662 and sub sequent reforms, the feudal system of tenure has had little practical significance in Ireland, the only theoretical concomitant now remaining being the fact that all land is ultimately held of the Crown. Accordingly the fee simple absolute in possession becomes equivalent to absolute ownership. This in turn makes possible the repeal of a number of ancient statutes, including the redoubtable Quia Emptores 1290. (3) Abolition of Entails The entail which was modified but not abolished in England in 1925, is proposed for burial in Ireland. The strict family settlement has been made virtually extinct by the successive charges of estate duty, and entails can in any event be barred. The proposal is, therefore, to convert existing or future purported fees tail into fees simple, a similar provision in New Zealand's Property Law Act 1952 providing a useful pre cedent. Only unbarrable entails and estates tail after possibility of issue extinct remain, but these become equitable and can only exist behind the settlement provisions. Settlements and Co-Ownership A complete new and much simpler code is pro posed to replace the Settled Land Acts 1882-90, and the code is quite different conceptually from English law as contained in the Settled Land Act 1925 and certain sections of the Law of Property Act 1925. The basis of the code is that in all cases where land is held for interests in succession a trust is imposed and the legal estate is therefore always in trustees (not exceeding four in number).

This trust will be a simple trust unless a trust for sale is specifically imposed. The trustees of the trust land have extensive powers of delegation to the life tenant. Existing settled land is converted into land held upon the new "statutory trusts" (i.e. a simple trust) but here delegation to the tenant for life of managerial powers is automatic. The tenant for life also must (a) be consulted before a sale by the trustees and (b) has the right to request a sale by notice to the trustees. The trustees have all the powers of a beneficial owner except as specifically restricted by the statute. The settlement provisions comprise some 32 clauses as opposed to the 120 sections of the Settled Land Act 1925 (plus some 11 more in the Law of Property Act 1925) and it is our hope that we have drafted a code which is simple yet flex ible. Co-ownership has been reformulated on a somewhat similar basis to English law. The legal estate is always vested in not more than four trustees as joint tenants, either on the statutory trusts (see supra) or on trust for sale; a tenancy in common may only exist in equity. This pro vision is designed to prevent the fractionalisation of the legal estate which can now occur. Conveyancing Reforms These are numerous and detailed. They include (a) reduction of period of commencement of title to 15 years (a similar reform having been intro duced in England by the Law of Property Act 1969); (b) the absolute right of the lessee to call for the title to the fee simple in proposed leases of thirty-five years and upwards; (c) abolition of need for words of limitation on conveyances of fees simple; (d) abolition of requirement of selling of deeds; (e) complete redrafting of the extremely intricate implied convenants for title; (f) various provisions as to costs being borne by the party incurring the service, including one (likely to be controversial) designed to stop the practice of making the vendor's estate agent's commission payable by the purchaser with whom there is no direct contractual relationship. Mortgages and Incorporated Hereditaments A new and detailed code is proposed for mort gages under which the only form permitted would 209