Profits a Prendre are usually rights to take from another person’s land something on the land itself or the wild animals existing on it that is the property of the landowner. The thing taken must be part of the land and be capable of being owned. A Profit cannot include water.
Examples of Profit a Prendre include rights to:
- graze stock
- plant and harvest crops
- quarry stone, sand or gravel, or
- take timber
A Profit can be Appurtenant or in Gross. An Appurtenant Profit can only be used by the owner of the adjacent property. It does not exist in its own right and is annexed to the ownership of other land. Conversely, a Profit in Gross is an interest in land that can be bought and sold separately from the ownership of the land itself. It exists in its own right and can be sold, purchased, assigned or otherwise transferred by its owner separately from the land over which the right arises (it exists independently of land).
A Profit a Prendre in Gross may be created by:
- Deed of Grant
- Common Law Prescription, or
- Under the Doctrine of Lost Modern Grant (which presupposes a grant that cannot now be produced).
Please note that a Profit a Prendre in Gross cannot be acquired under the provisions of the Prescription Act 1832.
Prior to the LRA 2002, Profits a Prendre in Gross were not capable of registration separately from land. However, since 13 October 2003 a Profit a Prendre in Gross can be registered with its own title.
To be capable of registration under its own title, a Profit a Prendre in Gross must:
- exist in its own right and not be annexed to the ownership of other land
- be held in fee simple or for a term of years with more than seven years unexpired
- be granted by deed, acquired by prescription at common law or acquired under the doctrine of lost modern grant
- be in respect of something which is capable of ownership (it cannot be in respect of water as water is not owned by anyone).
The Legal Stop is a straightforward online business using information technology for the public good. We offer a wide range of downloadable contract templates and online legal services to businesses, start-ups, and individuals. In our portfolio of document templates we also have a Deed of Grant – Profits a Prendre in Gross to be used in order to grant the following rights:
- profit of estovers
- profit of pasturage
- profit of turbary
- profit to mow and take grass and hay
- profit in gross of venery (including birds)
- profit of piscary
- profit in gross to sow, harvest and take arable crops
