Law of Property

Roehampton Law School
Undergraduate Degree Assessment for students registered with the
University of Roehampton
Module code: LLB020N204A
Module title: Law of Property
Module tutor: Cynthia Opoku-Gyamfi
FHEQ Level: Level 5
Assessment release date: Nov 2020
Type of assessment: Coursework
Instructions to candidates
Number of pages and documents
This document, comprising 7 pages, including this page sets out your instructions for
the assessment referred to above.
Submission instructions

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RLS Assessments 2020: Law of Property
Assessment Task (Answer all four parts A, B, C and D)
This Coursework comprises 100% of the marks for this module.
Part A
John purchased the registered title of Groveland in 2008. Groveland comprised two
residential buildings set in extensive grounds. When John moved into Groveland he
noticed that there was an uncultivated strip of land approximately 1 metre in width
that ran the entire length of the border with the neighbouring property,
Goodneighbours, the registered title to which belonged to Joshua. The previous
owner of Groveland, Lawrence, had neglected the strip of land for a number of
years. John decided to leave the strip of land uncultivated for a year to let it recover
its fertility. He then began planting bushes along the entire length of the strip. He
chose plants that he believed would deter Joshua’s cats from fouling the strip of
land.
In March 2019, John, who had become obsessed with security and privacy,
consulted his surveyor, Godwin, about the boundaries to Groveland. He was
disturbed to discover that the strip of land had always formed part of the registered
title to Goodneighbours. It seems that Godwin had known about this when John
purchased Groveland in 2008, but he had forgotten to mention it to John at the time.
In December 2019, John decided to sell Westwing, a small cottage located on the
main road at the western entrance to Groveland. After looking around Westwing,
Grace emailed John with an offer to buy the cottage for £500,000. John replied
saying he was happy to sell Westwing ‘on the terms you mention in your email’. He
ended his email, as he did all correspondence, by adding his nickname, ‘The John’.
He attached an architect’s drawing of Westwing, to his email. The drawing contained
John’s signature. A week later Grace and John orally agreed that Grace would buy
the gold curtains in the living room of Westwing for £550. Last week Grace emailed
John to say that she had changed her mind about buying Westwing.
Advise John whether:
(a) he can claim ownership of the strip of land belonging to Goodneighbours;
and, also,
(b) he can compel Grace to buy Westwing.
Part B
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Groveland also consisted of a large house with a substantial garden, a swimming
pool and a small woodland which Grace had also purchased from John. Always keen
to do things herself, Grace ignored her friends’ advice and arranged the conveyance
of Groveland without the assistance of a solicitor. When she moved in, however, she
found that the following items had been removed by John:
a) A large observation balloon, which floated about 40 metres above the
swimming pool. The balloon provided spectacular views over Groveland as well as
the surrounding countryside in all directions. The balloon was anchored in place by
three steel cables attached to concrete blocks resting on the ground. The balloon
had been accessed by a rope ladder and serviced by electricity and water supplies.
b) The swimming pool diving board.
c) All the carpets in the house, including carpet tiles which had been glued to the
floor in the downstairs bathroom; and
d) A 72-inch plasma TV which had rested on a tailor-made, wall-mounted
bracket in the underground cinema room.
Explain to Grace the principles which will determine whether she is entitled to
the items listed.
Part C
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Last month, the local paintballing club approached Grace with a view to buying the
woodland for their games. They offered her £100,000 which Grace agreed to. She
and the head paint-baller, Amin, had shaken hands on the deal and to confirm their
arrangement, Amin had written on the back of an old envelope:
‘This confirms what we agreed on 15th June 2019.’
Both Grace and Amin signed the back of the envelope.
The paint-ballers have since spent £20,000 digging trenches and erecting shooting
platforms but now Grace has decided that she would rather not have a lot of noisy
people running around the woodlands on Sunday mornings. She has informed Amin
that he and the paint-ballers will no longer be able to use the woodland.
Discuss whether a valid land contract has been created in this case and if so if
it is binding on Grace.
Part D
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Before purchasing Groveland, Grace owned a two-bedroom house in Woodley near
West End College. She decides to help her son, Ben, out of his current financial
difficulties by letting him use the house to raise income. She gives him a ten-year
licence of the house. Ben advertises the house on the notice board in the College
bookshop. Thomas and Bella, who are about to start the second year of their fashion
degree, sign identical ‘licence’ agreements to occupy the house. The agreement,
which is stated to be for ‘two years or until the completion of your degree
programme’, contains the following provisions:
a) Half of the total monthly licence fee of £2,000 is payable on the first day of each
month;
b) Ben’s son, Tiger, may use the sofa bed in the lounge to stay overnight whenever
he has to work late in the City;
c) Ben is to retain a set of keys to the house;
d) Ben will arrange for clean towels and bed linen to be delivered to the house once
a week.
Ben does not realise that Thomas and Bella are a couple and assumes that they will
occupy different bedrooms. In fact they share the same room. Before signing the
agreement, Bella asks Ben how often Tiger is likely to need to use the sofa bed and
why he (Ben) needs to retain a set of keys. Ben says that on the rare occasions that
Tiger would need to stay, he would always ask Bella and Thomas first. He also
explains that he is retaining a set of keys for the house just in case there is some
domestic emergency.
Discuss whether Ben has created a lease or a licence in favour of Bella and
Thomas.
This Coursework comprises 100% of the marks for this module.
Guidance: You are required to ;
1. Reference the sources you rely on using the OSCOLA referencing convention.
2. You will be marked down if you refer to non-legal or non-academic sources in
your submission. Examples of:
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a. Appropriate sources include law text books available in the library and law
journal articles from Westlaw and Lexis Nexis; and
b. Inappropriate sources include wikipedia.
3. Poor structure, composition or grammar will affect the quality of submission and
may even undermine the marker’s ability to comprehend your analysis.
Therefore, your should proof read your essay before you submit it for marking.
Format of your submission
 Include a title page with your submission. The title page must list the following:
 Module code
 Module title
 Module tutor
 Coursework title
 Number of pages submitted
 The word count.
Do not include your name or your student ID number
 Word limit: maximum 3000 words (excluding footnotes and bibliography)
You may exceed this word limit by 10% that is by an extra 300 words
making a total of no more than 3300 words. If you exceed this upper limit
then your mark will be reduced by 5 percentage points.
Footnotes must only be used to provide citations for authorities and for
referencing texts and articles. Text included in footnotes in breach of this
restriction will be added to the overall word count for the purposes of
determining whether the upper limit of 3300 words has been broken.
 Font: Arial, text size 12, line spacing 1.5
 Each page should be numbered
 Referencing is required. You are required to use OSCOLA style citation for
consistency.
Assessment criteria
1. You should read the assessment criteria that will be used to grade your
assessment submission before you begin. The relevant criteria are:
RLS In-Course Assessment and End of Module Examination Criteria
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The criteria may be downloaded from the Law Programme Moodle page. The
relevant document is listed under the heading ‘Assessment & Feedback
Information’.
2. The relative weighting of available marks between the three criteria are:

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