Equity

Equity has played a significant role in the development of

land law. So far, we have only considered the common
law and statutory aspects to land law. Besides legal
estates in land, a person may also own an equitable
estate in land.
Trusts
Historically, when fighting in the crusades, soldiers would
gift their estates to trusted others, on the understanding
that should they return alive, their estates would be
returned. However, these trusted others, under common
law, were entitled to sell on soldiers’ land for their own
personal profit. The Courts of Chancery therefore
developed the concept of the trust. When land was given
to a trusted other, it was said that although that other
then owned the legal estate in the soldier’s land, the
soldier retained ownership of an equitable estate in the
land. The property was said to be held on trust, with the
trusted other to be known as the trustee and the soldier
as both the grantor and beneficiary of the trust.
Notice
Equitable estates – estates held on trust – are not as
universally enforceable as trusts. They can be defeated if
the trustee were to sell the legal estate in the
property to a bona fide purchaser for valuable
consideration if that purchaser has no notice of the trust.
The previous statement describes the doctrine of notice.
According to Pilcher v Rawlings (1872), if a purchaser of a
legal estate satisfies all of the requirements of the
doctrine of notice, he need not be concerned with any
equitable estate in the land he is purchasing. There are 4
elements to the doctrine of notice: good faith, valuable
The 1925 legislation and its subsequent amendments will
be considered in more detail through the next two pages.