8. Proprietary Estoppel

Abstract

The chapter explores the doctrine of proprietary estoppel—a means by which a person may acquire a proprietary interest in another’s land. If made out, a claim to proprietary estoppel allows for the informal creation and acquisition of rights in land. Rather than just being raised as defence against legal claims (as is the case for example in promissory estoppel), it is this that sets proprietary estoppel apart and represents its major point of distinction from other estoppels. This chapter considers the requirements for establishing an estoppel claim and the effect of an estoppel on third parties. You come to the law of proprietary estoppel at a time when it is has hit something of a fertile patch. With a bounty of case law including the recent Supreme Court judgment in Guest v Guest (2022) and new decisions seemingly handed down almost monthly, proprietary estoppel is having its moment in the sun and remains one of the liveliest and most productive areas of land law today.