QUESTION 1:
Two clients who operate an accountancy practice by way of a partnership are considering purchasing at auction a small freehold lot in a Southern-Queensland regional city. With planning approval, the building on the lot is in use for professional offices. It is a renovated heritage cottage containing four offices, plus modern but basic kitchen and bathroom. Beside the cottage there are five carparking spaces and, to the rear, a small garden. To assist the clients to think through the potential purchase, they ask you (a graduate working in a legal practice in the city) whether either of the following would affect their ability to purchase and move into the premises in a timely way, and then to grow the accountancy practice substantially in accordance with a five-year business plan:
a) the entire premises are currently leased – an unregistered two-year non-retail lease, with one option to renew for two years, was entered into by an educational business six months ago; and
b) there is a registered easement, in favour of the owners of the neighbouring lot who operate a dental surgery – the terms of the easement provide a right to park two cars between the hours of 8.30am and 5.30pm each business day, but the clients advise of their concern that most days three out of the five carparking spaces are occupied by staff of the dental practice who start work well before 8.30am and finish much later than 5.30pm.
(max 500 words, 10 marks)
1 (one mark)
(a) Who is the client?
(b) What are the client’s goals?
2 (six marks)
(c) What is the available evidence (stated briefly) relevant to (d) -(f)? (one mark)
(d) What are the legal constraints and opportunities? (five marks)
3 (two marks)
(e) What are the available legal and equitable options?
4 (one mark)
(f) How should we proceed?
QUESTION 2:
Further to question 1, the clients now ask you to undertake a current title search of the lot. The relevant real estate agent has not disclosed a reserve price nor indicative price range for the auction, causing them to wonder whether the property is genuinely on the market.
In addition to the registered easement of which your clients are aware, your search of the title for the lot identifies:
c) a registered mortgage to SQ Bank – inquiries reveal SQ Bank is exercising power of sale via an agent employed to sell, that there are no locally-circulating print publications nor online real property sites advertising the sale, but the agent states when you inquire that the property will be sold at “a bargain price”, “well below market value”; and
d) a caveat lodged by SQ Almonds Pty Ltd to protect a “profit a prendre” – four years ago, the current registered proprietor granted SQ Olives the right in the garden area behind the cottage to plant some almond trees, to tend the trees and to harvest the almonds each year.
Provide further advice to the clients about the possible implications of c) and d) upon a transfer.
(max 500 words, 10 marks)
1 (one mark)
(a) Who is the client?
(b) What are the client’s goals?
2 (six marks)
(c) What is the available evidence (stated briefly) relevant to (d) -(f)? (one mark)
(d) What are the legal constraints and opportunities? (five marks)
3 (two marks)
(e) What are the available legal and equitable options?
4 (one mark)
(f) How should we proceed?
QUESTION 3:
A celebrity client (you work as a graduate solicitor in the property section of a national law firm) is embarrassed and continues to suffer a financial loss. He was tricked, by a false statement, into selling a large area of freehold land in Southern Queensland that he was preparing for subdivision. The trickster then mortgaged the land to a mortgagee who at the time was entirely unaware of, and not a party to, the false statement. Now, though, the confidence-trick has made the front-pages and gossip columns of many media publications.
For your client, you have managed to have the transfer declared void, but the mortgage remains on the title.
Your client asks what the next steps should be, whether he is able to have the mortgage removed from the title, and whether he can recover the rent lost while the land (which had been leased short-term for storage of shipping containers) was owned by the trickster.
(max 500 words, 10 marks)
1 (one mark)
(a) Who is the client?
(b) What are the client’s goals?
2 (six marks)
(c) What is the available evidence (stated briefly) relevant to (d) -(f)? (one mark)
(d) What are the legal constraints and opportunities? (five marks)
3 (two marks)
(e) What are the available legal and equitable options?
4 (one mark)
(f) How should we proceed?
QUESTION 4:
Your assistance is sought by a client about her property rights and remedies in law and equity in the following circumstances.
In 2012, your client and her sister purchased, as joint tenants and with the assistance of a mortgage, the freehold interest in a strata-title apartment in Southern Queensland. Your client and her sister both lived in the apartment until 2017, but the sister then left your client in sole occupation and ceased to make mortgage contributions. Since her sister’s departure, for the apartment, your client has paid all mortgage payments, paid to replace unsafe balcony balustrades, and paid for internal painting to update in a more contemporary colour scheme.
The sister’s trustee in bankruptcy seeks an order that the apartment be sold.
(max 500 words, 10 marks)
1 (one mark)
(a) Who is the client?
(b) What are the client’s goals?
2 (six marks)
(c) What is the available evidence (stated briefly) relevant to (d) -(f)? (one mark)
(d) What are the legal constraints and opportunities? (five marks)
3 (two marks)
(e) What are the available legal and equitable options?
4 (one mark)
(f) How should we proceed?