Contracts

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A contract for the sale of land, or of any interest in land, is void unless it complies with Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989, s 2 (LP(MP)A 1989). It must:

  1. •

    be in writing

  2. •

    contain or incorporate all of the terms expressly agreed by the parties, and

  3. •

    be signed by or on behalf of the parties

If a contract is varied after exchange then the variation must be in a document that itself complies with LP(MP)A 1989, s 2.

Re Stealth Construction [2011] EWHC 1305 (Ch) indicates that emails might contain the elements required to comply with LP(MP)A 1989, s 2. Consequently, emails containing the terms of a proposed agreement should be marked 'subject to contract' to avoid inadvertently and prematurely creating a binding agreement.

In exceptional cases the court has saved contracts from the full rigour of LP(MP)A 1989, s 2 by finding that terms omitted from the contract did not relate to the sale of the land, but formed a separate collateral contract.

LP(MP)A 1989, s 2 does not affect the creation

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