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Law of Property Act 2000
22Abolition of estates tail
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22 Abolition of estates tail
(1) A limitation in an instrument coming into operation after the
commencement of this Act that, but for this section, would create an
estate tail (legal or equitable) in any land in favour of a person is to
be taken to create an estate in fee simple (legal or equitable, as the
case may be) in that land in favour of the person to the exclusion of:
(a) all estates or other interests limited to take effect after the
determination or in defeasance of the estate tail; and
(b) all estates or other interests in reversion on the estate tail.
(2) If, after the commencement of this Act, a person is entitled, or
would but for subsection (1) be entitled, to an estate tail (legal or
equitable, and whether in possession, reversion, or remainder) in
any land, the person is, subject to subsection (3), to be taken to be
entitled to an estate in fee simple (legal or equitable, as the case
may be) in the land to the exclusion of:
(a) all estates or other interests limited to take effect after the
determination or in defeasance of the estate tail; and
(b) all estates or other interests in reversion on the estate tail.
Law of Property Act 2000 13
(3) If a person referred to in subsection (2) is a minor and the interest
in the land would pass to another person in the event of the death
of the minor before he or she attains the age of 18 and he or she is
without issue, then the minor is to be taken to take an estate in fee
simple with an executory limitation over the interest on the
happening of that event in favour of the other person.
(4) In this section, estate tail includes:
(a) an estate in fee into which an estate tail is converted where
the issue in tail are barred but persons claiming estates by
way of remainder or otherwise are not barred; and
(b) an estate in fee voidable or determinable by the entry of the
issue in tail,
but does not include the estate of a tenant in tail after possibility of
issue extinct.
(5) The Registrar-General may, on the lodgement of a request to him
or her in the appropriate form, record the particulars in the land
register that he or she considers necessary to give effect to this
section.