CONVEY A N C I N G (3) the memorandum or formal contract at the foot of the and of which the following are the most important: conditions, which incorporates by reference the particulars (1) Recitals, statements, and descriptions of facts, and conditions, names or sufficiently refers to the vendor, matters, and parties contained in instruments twenty and is signed by the purchaser after the sale. ri he object years old at the date of the contract are, unless proved of the agreement, whether the sale is by private contract inaccurate, to be taken as sufficient evidence of the or by auction, is to define accurately what is sold, to truth of such facts, matters, and descriptions; (2) a provide for the length of title and the evidence in support purchaser cannot require the production of, or make any of or in connexion with the title which is to be required requisition or objection in respect of, any document dated except so far as it is intended that the general law shall before the commencement of the title; (3) the cost of obtainregulate the rights of the parties, and to fix the times at ing evidence and information not in the vendor’s possession which the principal steps in the transaction are to be taken. must be borne by the purchaser. The possibility of the It is also usual to provide for the payment of interest at a rescission clause now commonly found in contracts for the prescribed rate upon the purchase money if the completion sale of real estate being exercised in order to avoid comshall be delayed beyond the day fixed for any cause other pliance with an onerous requisition, is also an important than the vendor’s wilful default, and also that the vendor factor in the situation. The requisitions are in due course shall be at liberty to rescind the contract without paying replied to, and further requisitions may arise out of the costs or compensation if the purchaser insists upon any answers. A summary method of obtaining a judicial requisition or objection which the vendor is unable or, determination of questions connected with the contract, upon the ground of expense or other reasonable ground, is but not affecting its validity, is provided by the Y. and P. unwilling to comply with or remove. Upon a sale by Act, 1874. Before completion it is usual for the purchaser auction it is the rule to require a deposit to be paid by to cause searches to be made in various official registers for way of security to the vendor against default on the matters required to be entered therein, such as judgments, land charges, and pending actions, which may affect the part of the purchaser. The signature of the agreement is followed by the vendor’s title to sell, or amount to an incumbrance upon delivery to the purchaser or his solicitor of the abstract the property. When the title has been approved, or so soon as it of title, which is an epitome of the various inAbstract struments and events under and in consequence appears reasonably certain that it will be accepted, the of title. tpg vendor derives his title. A pur- draft conveyance is prepared and submitted to Convey. chaser is entitled to an abstract at the vendor’s expense the vendor. This is commonly done by and at ances unless otherwise stipulated. It begins with the instrument the expense of the purchaser, who is entitled to fixed by the contract for the commencement of the title, or, determine the form of the conveyance, provided that the if there has been no agreement upon the subject, with an vendor is not thereby prejudiced, or put to additional instrument of such character and date as is prescribed by expense. The common mode of conveying a freehold is the law in the absence of stipulation between the parties. now, as already mentioned, by ordinary deed, called in this From its commencement as so determined the abstract, if case an indenture, from the old practice, where a deed properly prepared, shows the history of the title down to was made between two or more parties, of writing copies the sale; every instrument, marriage, birth, death, or other upon the same parchment and then dividing it by an fact or event constituting a link in the chain of title, being indented or toothed line. Indenting is, however, not sufficiently set forth in its proper order. The next step is necessary, and in modern practice is disused. A deed the verification of the abstract on the purchaser’s behalf derives its efficacy from its being sealed and delivered. . It by a comparison of it with the originals of the deeds, the is still a matter of doubt whether signing is essential. probates of the wills, and office copies of the instruments It is not necessary that its execution should be attested of record through which the title is traced. The vendor is except in special circumstances, as, e.y., where made under a bound to produce the original documents, except such as power requiring the instrument exercising it to be attested. are of record or have been lost or destroyed, but, unless But in practice conveyances are not only sealed, but also otherwise stipulated, the expense of producing those which signed, and attested by one or two witnesses. The details are not in his possession falls upon the purchaser (C. A., of a conveyance in any particular case depend upon the 1881). After being thus verified, the abstract is perused subject-matter and terms of the sale, and the state of the by the purchaser’s advisers with the object of seeing title as appearing by the abstract. The framework, howwhether a title to the property sold is deduced according ever, of an ordinary purchase-deed consists of (1) the date to the contract, and what evidence, information, or objec- and parties, (2) the recitals, (3) the testatum or witnessingtion, in respect of matters appearing or arising upon the part, containing the statement of the consideration for abstract, ought to be called for or taken. For this the sale, the words incorporating covenants for title, and purpose it is necessary to consider the legal effect of the the operative words, (4) the parcels or description of the abstracted instruments, whether they have been properly property, (5) the habendum, showing the estate or interest completed, whether incumbrances, adverse interests, defects, to be taken by the purchaser, and (6) any provisos or liabilities in respect of duties, or any other burdens or covenants that may be required. A few words will restrictions disclosed by the abstract, have been already illustrate the object and effect of these component parts. (1) The parties are the persons from whom the property, got rid of or satisfied, or remain to be dealt with before the completion of the sale. The result of the considera- or some estate or interest in or in relation to it, is to pass tion of these matters is embodied in “ requisitions to the purchaser, or whose concurrence is rendered necesRequisi- Up0n title,” which are delivered to the vendor’s sary by the state of the title in order to give the purt,ons ’ solicitors within a time usually fixed for the pur- chaser the full benefit of his contract and to complete it pose by the contract. In making or insisting upon according to law. It is often necessary that other persons requisitions regard is had, among other things, to any besides the actual vendor should join in the conveyance, special conditions in the contract dealing with points e.g., a mortgagee who is to be paid off and convey his as to which evidence or objection might otherwise have estate, a trustee of an outstanding legal estate, a person been required or taken, and to a variety of provisions con- entitled to some charge or restriction who is to release it, tained in the Y. and P. Act, 1874, and the Conveyancing or trustees who are to receive the purchase-money where a Act, 1881, which apply, except so far as otherwise agreed, limited owner is selling under a power (e.g., a tenant for hie
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