English Law of Property - Assignment 2022-23

Coursework Cover Sheet.

This should be used for all coursework except for the first three assessments in first
year (Foundations of Law, Public Law 1 and either Private law of Scotland 1 or
English Contract), where you will not have feedback to reflect on. In the second
Foundations coursework, and all other coursework, you can reflect on feedback in
previous courseworks (or exams, if appropriate) in different modules.

Please note that in previous assignments you will have received some feedback on the
body of your assignment but also in the rubric on the right of your essay.

You can download this coversheet as a word file and add your coursework to it, or,
you can copy and paste the headings below and put it at the start of your coursework.
You do not need to write more than a paragraph; it does not count towards your
grade or your wordcount. The purpose is to help you reflect on your previous
feedback and use this to improve your grades.

Matriculation Number:

Module Title: English Law of Property

Coursework Title: EPL (worth 25% of the module)

How I responded to my feedback in previous assessments when

completing this assessment (include what area/s you were most
concerned about having written this assignment):

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 English Law of Property 2022-23

Assignment Levels 3 & 4

Research Problem Question

Question:

These facts are accompanied by a map that forms part of the question. Please have it
to hand as you read the following.

Khaled owns 1 Monet Close (“No1”), Sussex, since January 2008. Mary and Pierre
Duval moved into 2 Monet Close “No2”) in January 2010 and Catherine and Amanda
Morgan moved into 3 Monet Close (“No3”) in January 2011.

These are detached freehold houses side by side to each other at the end of the cul-
de-sac. They are marked 1, 2 and 3 respectively in purple on the map. Their front
gardens are marked 1, 2 and 3 in green and edged in green. The border between the
properties is in light green with dark green dashes.

No1 has a large garage to the front of the house (marked in purple with a large X
covering its ‘roof’).

In No1’s very large back garden, is a small cottage (marked C). Behind No1-3 is waste
ground owned by a secondary school.

Part A

A year after Khaled moved into No1, he started cutting the grass of the area to the left
of his house and in front of No2 and No3 shaded dark green (both the area edged in
brown - marked the Area - and the triangular-shaped area next to No4 marked E).
He believed this was council property that the council never bothered to cut.

After the owners of Nos 1-3 (as above) became good friends in 2014, they:

 started to share the mowing of the Area and E (taking turns every week in spring and
summer);

 immediately divided the Area into three parts and demarked their boundary with
potted plants (the dashes on the map show this; the idea being that each would use
their own part);

 in January 2016, they planted mature trees along the border closest to No 4 (marked
with Ts) to obtain privacy from No4;

 in their ‘own’ part of the Area, the neighbours often sunbathed, read a book or got
drunk. They used the Area more than the front or back gardens obtaining much
better sun in the Area. They did not use the area marked E for any activity out of
respect of No4’s privacy and in order to minimise noise from their often boisterous
drinking sessions unduly disturbing No4.

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 Once the trees were planted in 2016, No4 would mow the area marked E when they
found that their neighbours had stopped mowing it.

 In 2018, tired of having to mow the Area, Nos 1-3 decided to convert the Area into
patio. Thereafter, they still used it for the above-mentioned activities but increasingly
also for barbecues. They each kept their potted plants and the trees marked T.

 The Area had always been used by delivery people/postal workers and neighbours as
a shortcut between No1 and No4; this became easier now it was all in patio
(previously people would avoid walking over grass after it had recently rained for fear
of damaging the lawn).

 The owners of Nos 1-3 are unaware that the Area and E are part of No 4’s freehold.
The owners of No4 are of course aware of these activities but have never complained.

Part B

In 2015 while renovating the cottage, Khaled’s workers brought in a large skip that
that they put at S on the map. This is not on Khaled’s land but is in fact on part of the
freehold of the neighbouring school. This is a 20m by 7m strip of derelict land which
the School has never sought to develop.

It is uneven with many small waste electric items left there by the School. The School
is aware of the skip’s presence and Khaled’s continued use of it. Khaled now uses the
skip as storage area for unwanted household items and excess garden waste. He
empties the skip periodically.

Earlier this year, Khaled put the house on the market. Anabelle is
considering buying the property and has asked you, her conveyancer, to
advise her on the above. Assume the date is the date of submission of the
assignment. Do not consider any tort or criminal law issues.

This is a “normal” problem question; you are not asked to write as if

this were a letter to a client/lay person but should write in the standard
legal style of critical advice, supported by reference to legal authority.
For the avoidance of doubt: you should address what steps Anabelle can
or should do, or expect next, if anything.

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Submission deadline:

Friday 24th February 2023 at midday via Turnitin

Word Limit:

1500 words (including footnotes but excluding the coversheet questionnaire and
bibliography)

Other Instructions:

This is worth 25% of your module mark.

All assignments that take the form of PQs are by definition ‘research’ PQs; I use that
heading to emphasise that you need to do some research on the law that would apply
to the facts in order to do very well. Westlaw is the obvious place for cases in addition
to using a detailed textbook for initial research: for example Chris Bevan’s book.
Cases referred to must be read and the pinpoints (the page or paragraph) for them
given or you will lose marks. As you know, you have already been asked to read three
of leading cases and the chapters in Cooke and Lees.

Headings and sub-headings are obligatory - I made it optional in Equity only to

find some had poor structure and would have benefitted from headings.

While you need to consider why each fact has been given, there may be some facts
that are not relevant to the analysis you have been asked to undertake. Whatever
work you go into post-university, the facts that clients, customer, colleagues or
circumstances present to you are not simply just the relevant facts. Equally, as you
know, not all the facts you need may be there, so you need to identify missing
information as well as un-necessary detail.

Dedicate as much of your word count to the issues as is merited by their complexity;
no further guidance will be given.

General Guidance

Here is some general guidance based on the feedback given when this
sort of PQs was used in the past.

Some Dos & Don’ts of Critical Analysis

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 • In a PQ in this module the focus of critical analysis is to apply the right cases
to the facts and to navigate precedents in a critical fashion. Clearly the most
authoritative statements of the law are from the highest court. These set out
the principles of AP. Other case law from lower courts are perhaps more ‘on-
point’ to the facts here so a critical approach here may involve (for example)
assessing the relevance and correctness of the approach of these lower courts.

• Do the facts of the PQ raise issues on the effectiveness, coherence or legal

certainty of the law (or other value that seems apt here)? In figuring out what
value the law should pursue perhaps focus on what the law here claims to
pursue (or what the commentators/authorities claim).

Structure (and IRA (F) C)

 An introduction here might mention the law that will be useful to set out at the start and
that will be cross-referred to in the body of the PQ.

 A poor PQ will just run through the facts of all cases or cases of no factual relevance to
the PQ. Do you need to tell us the facts of every case you refer to in order to support the
point you are making? If the facts are not very relevant to those in the PQ, why mention
them?

 As long as your answer addresses the issues fully, accurately clearly and critically, how
you structure it is up to you. As you know, both from this module and Equity, one
approach to use, after the introduction, is the IRA (F) C approach, viz:

Issue - A PQ is composed of a number of sub-issues to whether there could be a successful

invocation of AP. Identify each sub-issue and then:

Rules - set out the rules and principles at play

Apply - apply the rules to the facts

Further Info - identify further information needed to complete the legal analysis and why
you need that information (if any)

Conclude

Other Instructions & Advice

 In keeping with our standard practice, the word-limit includes footnotes but not the
bibliography.

 Look back at feedback on your previous essays to see how your work can be improved –
the topic may be quite different but many of the challenges in terms of structure,
expression and presentation are the same. Remember, there is not just comments on the
coursework text but also a rubric to the right of your submitted text that provides
feedback under different headings.

 Be succinct.

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 In the past, assignments have suffered as a result of poor grammar, poor sentence
structure, inconsistent use of language etc. This is not just a cosmetic issue but gets in the
way of presenting precise explanations, clear ideas and sophisticated arguments – all
essential for high-level legal writing. The Academic Skills Centre can offer assistance on
this aspect of your work. In the medium term (ie over an academic year) doing as much
reading as possible can help with this: read quality newspapers, novels (if you’re
interested) or non-fiction books (if you prefer). Note down useful phraseology and use it
in your assignments.

 Proof-read your work carefully to make sure that you have avoided careless mistakes –
use the spell-check (set to UK English) and other technical assistance, but always with
care, e.g. the spell-check will not distinguish between “public” and “pubic”!

 Refer to OSCOLA for the styles for citing cases, books, journals etc.

 “Ibid.” can be used to refer only to the immediately preceding footnote; see the early
part of OSCOLA for the style to use for repeated citations and cross-references. It is
acceptable to establish explicitly a short-hand style for referring to sources used
repeatedly.

 Your coursework must have a bibliography.

 Items in the bibliography should appear in a logical order, usually divided into sections
according to the nature of the source and in alphabetical order (by family name of author
for secondary works).

 You must give a precise source for any quotations, including a reference to the specific
page or paragraph or provision where the quote comes from.

 Quotations must be 100% accurate. Any editing should show where words have been
omitted or added/altered: This quote [has been] significantly altered to make it … easier
to read.

 Use a consistent font throughout the essay. Please use a size 12 font at least and please
justify the margins (select text and press control J). This is contrary to usual
advice but it helps me (SA) read things quickly due to mild dyslexia.