longdog wrote: ↑Fri Jul 05, 2019 10:47 pm
Yes parliament can change any law they like but in the circumstances we're talking about they haven't so it's irrelevant.
OK so your claim is that Parliament COULD enact legislation that means a victim of fraud loses their house, now it's a question of whether they have. That's a step in the right direction, because it means that your earlier statement "Totally regardless of other laws you cannot give title to something you don't own" was wrong. Other laws CAN in fact make it so that someone can give title to something they don't own, thanks to the doctrine of Parliamentary Supremacy.
So, let's now address whether or not they have.
longdog wrote: ↑Fri Jul 05, 2019 10:47 pm
None of the examples you have cited have anything to do with the situation where a fraudster has managed to get the Land Registry to list a property in his name and sell it or mortgage it.
That is true, but we don't need to find case law on the exact scenario, we only need to find case law that establishes the relevant principles, and we can extrapolate from there.
Now we know that in Frazer, the mortgage was a fraud, but it was registered anyway. We know that the bank, an innocent party to the fraud, sold the house to another innocent party. And we know that the buyer of the house was successfully able to bring a claim against an owner of the house, another innocent party, to have them ejected.
You claim that it's different because the person perpetrating the fraud were a partial owner. So let's see if that's relevant.
In that case it was said that "The appellant invoked these sections, and regulation 24 of the Land Transfer Regulations, 1948, in support of an argument that the forged mortgage could not be received for registration or validly registered and consequently that the mortgagee never became entitled to the benfit of registration. Their Lordships cannot accept this argument, which would be destructive of the whole system of registration."
Importantly, there is no limit in the above statement restricting such a principle to frauds perpetrated by people with an interest, a forged mortgage is a forged mortgage regardless of who forges it.
So what of the fact that the Act contains an exception for fraud? "It is to be noticed that each of these sections excepts the case of fraud, section 62 employing the words 'except in case of fraud,' and section 63 using the words 'as against the person registered as proprietor of that land through fraud.' The uncertain ambit of these expressions has been limited by judicial decision to actual fraud by the registered proprietor or his agent."
In other words, if a fraudster fraudulently registers a mortgage for his own benefit, he is the registered interest holder, and his fraud invalidates it. If the fraudster fraudulently transfers property to himself, again he is the registered interest holder, and the fraud invalidates it. This all makes sense.
But the problem arises when there's an innocent party involved. If the fraudster sells (or mortgages) someone else's property to an innocent person, the new registered proprietor has not engaged in any fraud, and the fraud exception therefore does not extend to them. The new innocent owner gains indefeasibility of title, and the old owner who might be none the wiser about this entire process is out on their arse. The old owner has an equitable interest, sure, but they no longer have legal title since "it is in fact the registration and not its antecedents which vests and divests title", the fraud exception doesn't apply, so it is in fact the old owner that is, to use the legal parlance, shit out of luck.
Again, there is nothing in the judgment that suggests that fraud committed by a joint owner is to be treated any differently to fraud committed by someone with no interest at all, so at the present time the law does not support your assertion.
Now I'm not saying that the Privy Council has the CORRECT interpretation of the fraud exception. In fact I tend to think they're wrong. But at least at this point in time the highest court of the land has interpreted Parliaments laws such that victims of fraud can, without their knowledge, lose their house.
Yes, they can claim compensation. Maybe the innocent buyer will now sell it back to them. Or maybe they won't and they'll have to go buy some other house. It's shit, I know, but it's the law.