Friday, May 22, 2015

Malcolm Merry on Missing Title Deeds

"Victorian prescience about missing title deeds"
Malcolm Merry
The Conveyancer and Property Lawyer
[2015] 2, pp 176-183
Abstract: A tentative suggestion by a Lord Chancellor of the mid-Victorian era, Lord Campbell, as to the test for whether the absence of original title deeds means that a vendor of property cannot give a good title has been vindicated and elaborated upon by the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong (De Monsa Investments Ltd v Whole Win Management Fund Ltd (2013) 16 HKCFAR 419). The test to be applied is whether the deeds which are not produced cast any reasonable suspicion upon the title. Consequently it is possible, depending upon the circumstances, for a vendor to give good title even if the original deeds are missing and an adequate explanation for their absence cannot be given.  Full text article can be downloaded from Westlaw.

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