Property Law Act 1958

A purchaser of any property shall not—

require the production, or any abstract or copy, of any deed, will or other document, dated or made before the time prescribed by law, or stipulated, for the commencement of the title, even though the same creates a power subsequently exercised by an instrument abstracted in the abstract furnished to the purchaser; or

require any information, or make any requisition, objection or inquiry, with respect to any such deed, will or document, or the title prior to that time, notwithstanding that any such deed, will or other document, or that prior title, is recited, agreed to be produced, or noticed—

any power of attorney under which any abstracted document is executed; or

any document creating or disposing of an interest, power or obligation which is not shown to have ceased or expired, and subject to which any part of the property is disposed of by an abstracted document; or

any document creating any limitation or trust by reference to which any part of the property is disposed of by an abstracted document.

Where land sold is held by lease (other than an under-lease), the purchaser shall assume, unless the contrary appears, that the lease was duly granted; and, on production of the receipt for the last payment due for rent under the lease before the date of actual completion of the purchase, he shall assume, unless the contrary appears, that all the covenants and provisions of the lease have been duly performed and observed up to the date of actual completion of the purchase.

Where land sold is held by under-lease, the purchaser shall assume, unless the contrary appears, that the under-lease and every superior lease were duly granted; and, on production of the receipt for the last payment due for rent under the under-lease before the date of actual completion of the purchase, he shall assume, unless the contrary appears, that all the covenants and provisions of the under-lease have been duly performed and observed up to the date of actual completion of the purchase, and further that all rent due under every superior lease, and all the covenants and provisions of every superior lease, have been paid and duly performed and observed up to that date.

On a sale of any property, the following expenses shall be borne by the purchaser where he requires them to be incurred for the purpose of verifying the abstract or any other purpose, that is to say—

the expenses of the production and inspection of all records, proceedings of courts, deeds, wills, probates, letters of administration and other documents, not in possession of the vendor or his mortgagee or trustee, and the expenses of all journeys incidental to such production or inspection; and

the expenses of searching for, procuring, making, verifying and producing all certificates, declarations, evidences and information not in the possession of the vendor or his mortgagee or trustee, and all attested, stamped, office or other copies or abstracts of, or extracts from, any records or other documents aforesaid, not in the possession of the vendor or his mortgagee or trustee—

On a sale of any property in lots, a purchaser of two or more lots, held wholly or partly under the same title, shall not have a right to more than one abstract of the common title, except at his own expense.

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

The inability of a vendor to furnish a purchaser with an acknowledgment of his right to production and delivery of copies of documents of title or 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 documents.

Such acknowledgments of the right of production or covenants for production and such undertakings or covenants for safe custody of documents as the purchaser can and does require shall be furnished or made 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.

A vendor shall be entitled to retain documents of title where—

he retains any part of the land to which the documents relate; or

the document is an instrument creating a trust which is still subsisting, or an instrument relating to the appointment or discharge of a trustee of a subsisting trust.

This section shall apply to contracts for sale made before or after the commencement of this Act, and shall apply to contracts for exchange in like manner as to contracts for sale, except that it shall apply only to contracts for exchange made after such commencement:

Nothing in this section shall be construed as binding a purchaser to complete his purchase in any case where, on a contract made independently of this section, and containing stipulations similar to the provisions of this section, or any of them, specific performance of the contract would not be enforced against him by the Court.