Most students who have taken a course in modern political science would appreciate that the United Kingdom is unlike most other nation-states because it itself made of three countries, commonly referred as sub-national administrative entities. Since each of these sub-national entities viz. – Scotland, England and Wales, and Northern Ireland has its own Parliament; they have drafted property laws that apply within the boundaries of their jurisdiction. There are commonalities between the property laws of Scotland, England and Wales, and Northern Ireland. For example all three jurisdictions follow the Common Law System, however the commonalities are trumped by the differences between the laws of England and Scotland specifically.

The Queen is still the head of state of United Kingdom. However, her office is merely ceremonial. The decline in powers of the monarch’s office over the past two centuries ensured that important changes were made to the title of property in the United Kingdom. Now, the Queen is not considered the owner of all properties in the United Kingdom. Instead, the citizens of United Kingdom can hold the title of properties in their individual capacities. This may appear a banal change for young readers; however students of history will appreciate the major departure it meant from centuries-old property laws.

As per the UK legal system, property is typically classified as either real property or individual property under the aegis of Common Law System. Countries that follow the Civil Law System typically make the distinction between movable and immovable property. In the United Kingdom, a person or legal entity can have absolute ownership of an individual property. However, a person or legal entity cannot have claim absolute ownership of a real property. Owner of an individual property cannot lease his property, and therefore cannot charge rent. A person owning a real property can shift the ownership to another person or legal entity by signing a legally binding deed document. However, there is no need for an elaborate deed to be signed for transferring the ownership rights of an individual property. Only civil lawyers can represent appellants in property lawsuits. There are special civil courts that preside upon matters pertaining to property laws.

The United Kingdom has different property law systems for England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Property law in England and in Wales comes from English Common Law System which dates back to the feudal system of land ownership. Property is something that is owned by a person or entity. English law of property is divided into two types: ‘Personal property’ and ‘Real property’. Real is any interest in land, real estates, growing plants or the improvements and developments on it and Personal is everything else.

The basic theory of English Property law of land is that all land in England and Wales is owned by the crown. The individual does not own the land but merely holds it from the Crown. When the grant of land is made to a person, he would be entitled to hold the land for a particular period of time. The word ‘estate’ refers the length of time for which the land is held. Estates were divided into two main groups: estate of freehold and estate of leasehold (before 1925, known as estate less than free hold). English law has different statutes for both unregistered and registered land. However from October, 2003 it is compulsory to register all lands.

Now, personal properties can be divided into two main categories: corporeal personal which includes items such as, animals, jewelry etc. and incorporeal personal, such as, copyrights, stocks, bonds etc. In English law of property, there are still some differences between these two types of property. Real property like land must be transferred by deed. For personal property the rules are much flexible. Real property may have different incidents like co-ownership, leasing etc. where personal property may have not. There is no absolute ownership of land of real under English law. But personal properties there are absolute ownerships. Upon death of the owner real property like land, house, shop etc. goes to the heir whereas, personal property is instead divided by laws of the Statute of Distributions. Under English law, a will of lands doesn’t need proof, but a will of personal property or of personal and real property together does.