Читать книгу Property Entrepreneur - Wong Vincent - Страница 8

Land ownership has always been a complex and complicated issue. The history of organized land ownership in England really started with the Domesday Book, established in 1086 during the reign of William the Conqueror. This publication was an extensive list of all landholders that outlined all the taxes they owed to the King, who technically owned all the land in England. Under the feudal system, lords controlled their allotted land and granted rights to vassals and serfs who could live on and work the land in exchange for allegiance to the lord (i.e. the promise that they would fight to defend their lord if he came under attack in any way, as well as the obligation to serve that lord in whichever way he pleased). Basically it was a form of slavery; those in service to the lord had few rights.

The English Civil War, that saw Charles I executed and the establishment of the Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell, also brought about the formal end of feudal land tenure. Even after the restoration of the monarchy, it was established (and has been held ever since) that the English monarch could only govern with the consent of Parliament. And thus began common law and the democracy under which we live today.

So what did this mean for land law?

Basically, it led to the establishment of “freeholders” of land. The monarch became formally obliged to acknowledge your land rights, i.e. your right to live on the land you “own” as long as you paid your taxes due. From this point, as a freeholder, you were entitled to live on your land free from the obligation of “serving” your lord. Basically you owned the “estate” (which is where the term “real estate” comes from) as opposed to the land, and you were entitled to sell that real estate or pass it on to your heirs. By contrast, leaseholders were limited to “owning” the estate for a given lease term, paying a rent to the owner of the land. Typically lease lengths were extensive and these days are usually around 99 years. (In modern times leasehold properties have become increasingly common where multiple dwellings exist on the same piece of land; for example, purpose-built blocks of flats. If you have 50 flats within a building, it would be a logistical nightmare for all the “owners” to share the freehold, so one landlord usually owns the land and leases it to the owners. If you've ever bought a leasehold flat you'll know that you have to pay “ground rent” to the freeholder, even though you technically own your flat. At the end of a lease, the legal deeds to the property pass back to the freeholder, which is why you should always seriously consider the length of a lease before buying property!)

Common law aside, it was still a long time before ordinary people could buy and sell property because most land was still “owned” by the ruling classes. The working classes still lived in privately owned accommodation and then paid rent to their landlord.