Vendor and Purchaser Act 1878 (WA)

WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

ANNO QTJADRAGESIMO SEGUNDO

VICTORISA R EGINIE,

8'.4"4404S :O8w.SW08'

No. X.

AN ACT to amend the law of Vendor and Purchaser, and further to simplify title to Land.

[ Assented to, 3rd July, 1878.]

WHEREAS it is expedient to facilitate the transfer of land by means of certain amendments in the law of vendor and Im perial c i . ral Act, 37 3: 38 Vic. ,

purchaser ; Be it enacted by His Excellency the Governor of Western Australia and its Dependencies, by and with the advice and con- sent of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows:-

, IN the completion of any contract of sale of land made after the 'first day of September, 1878, and subject to any stipulation to	Forty years substituted for sixty years as the root of
the contrary in the contract, forty years shall be substituted as the	title.
period of commencement of title which a purchaser may require in place of sixty years, the present period of such commencement ; nevertheless, earlier title than forty years may be required in cases similar to those in which earlier title than sixty years may now be required.
2 IN the completion of any such contract as aforesaid, and subject to any stipulation to the contrary in the contract, the obliga-	Rules for regulating obli-
gations and rights of vendor

tions and purchaser.

2  42° VICTOREE, No. 10.

Vendor and Purchaser.

tions and rights of vendor and purchaser shall be regulated by the

following rules, that is to say :—

First.—Under a contract to grant or assign a term of years, whether derived or to be derived out of a freehold or leasehold estate, the intended lessee or assign shall not be entitled to call for the title to the freehold.

Second.—Recitals, statements, and descriptions of facts, matters, and parties contained in deeds, instruments, Acts of Council, or statutory declarations twenty years old at the date of the contract, shall, unless and except so far as they shall be proved to be inaccurate, be taken to be sufficient evidence of the truth of such facts, matters, and descriptions.

Third.—The inability of the vendor to furnish the purchaser with a legal covenant to produce and furnish copies of documents of title shall not be an objection to title in case the purchaser will on the completion of the contract have an equitable right to the production of such docu- ments.

Fourth.—Such covenants for production as the purchaser can and shall require, shall be furnished at his expense, and the vendor shall bear the expense of perusal and execution on behalf of; and by himself, and on behalf of and by necessary parties other than the purchaser.

Fifth.—Where the vendor retains any part of an estate, to which any documents of title relate, lie shall be entitled to retain such documents.

3 TRUSTEES who are either vendors or purchasers may sell

Trustees may sell, &e., not-	or buy without excluding the application of the second section of
withstanding rules.	this Act.

Legal personal representa- 4 THE legal personal representative of a mortgagee of a free-

tive may convey legal estate

hold estate, may on payment of all sums secured by the mortgage,

of mortgaged property.

convey the mortgaged estate, whether the mortgage be in form,

an assurance subject to redemption, or an assurance upon trust.

Bare legal estates in fee 5 UPON the death of a bare trustee of any corporeal or in-

simple to vest in executor

corporeal hereditament, of which such trustee was seised in fee

or administrator.

simple, such hereditament shall vest like a chattel real in the legal

personal representative from time to time of such trustee.

42° VICTORDE, No. 10. 3

Vendor and Purchaser.

6 WHEN any freehold hereditament shall be vested in a Married woman who is a

married woman as a bare trustee, she may convey the same as if she	bare trusteemay convey, he.
were a feme sole.

7 AFTER the commencement of this Act, no priority or pro- Protection and priority by

tection shall be given or allowed to any estate, right, or interest	legal estates and tacking
in land by reason of such estate, right, or interest being protected	not to be allowed.
by or tacked to any legal or other estate or interest in such
land; and full effect shall be given in every Court to this pro-
vision, although the person claiming such priority or protection, as aforesaid, shall claim as a purchaser for valuable consideration and without notice. Provided always that this section shall not take away from any estate, right, title, or interest, any priority or protection which but for this section would have been given or allowed thereto as against any estate or interest existing before the commencement of this Act.

8 WHERE the will of a testator devising land in Western Non-registration of will in

Australia has not been registered within the period allowed by law	Western Australia cured
in that behalf, an assurance of such land to a purchaser or mort-	in certain cases.
gagee by the devisee or by some one deriving title under him shall, if registered before, take precedence of and prevail over any assur- ance from the testator's heir at law.

9 A VENDOR or purchaser of real or leasehold estate, or Vendor or purchaser may

their representatives respectively, may at any time or times, and	obtain decision of a Judge
from time to time apply in a summary way to any Judge of the	in Chambers as to requisi- tions or objections, or com-
Supreme Court in its Equitable Jurisdiction in Chambers, in respect	pensation, he.
of any requisitions, or objections, or any claim for compensation, or any other question arising out of or connected with the contract (not being a question affecting the existence or validity of the contract) and the judge shall make such order upon the application as to him shall appear just, and shall order how and by whom all or any of the costs of and incident to the application shall be borne and paid.

10 This Act may be cited as " The Vendor and Purchaser Act, Short Title.

1878."

In the name and on behalf of the Queen I hereby assent to

this Act.

H. ST. GEORGE ORD, Governor.

By Authority: RICHARD PETHE Government Printer, Perth.