Crown Estate Act 1961

8 Miscellaneous provisions as to transfers of and title to property

(1) No Order in Council shall be made after the passing of this Act under subsection (1) of section one of the Forestry (Transfer of Woods) Act, 1923, for the transfer to the appropriate Minister under paragraph (a) of that subsection of any property, rights or interests forming part of the Crown Estate, nor for the retransfer under paragraph (e) of any property, rights or interests previously transferred under paragraph (a), and the Minister's powers over land so transferred shall not be subject to any restrictions which may have applied to the land as being part of the Royal forests, parks and chases or any of them ; and where after the commencement of this Act the appropriate Minister sells land previously transferred under paragraph (a) to an amount exceeding five acres at any one time, then unless the sum determined under section three of that Act on the occasion of the transfer as the amount contingently payable by way of compensation for the transfer of rights and interests of the Crown has been fully paid or satisfied.—

(a) the net proceeds of sale or the portion necessary to satisfy that sum shall be paid by the Minister to the Commissioners, and shall form part of the Crown Estate; and

(b) the payment shall be treated as satisfying a part of that sum equal to the gross proceeds of sale or the corresponding portion of them.

In this subsection " the appropriate Minister" means the appropriate Minister for the purposes of the Forestry Act, 1945.

(2) It is hereby declared that where, immediately before the commencement of the Law of Property Act, 1925, the property under the management of the Commissioners of Crown Lands comprised an undivided share vested in the Crown in any land in England or Wales, the transitional provisions in Part IV of the First Schedule to that Act had effect in relation thereto, notwithstanding that the effect was to vest the land in the Crown jointly with other persons as trustees.

(3) Where land escheats to Her Majesty in right of the Crown or of the Duchy of Lancaster, or to the Duke of Cornwall or Her Majesty in right of the Duchy of Cornwall, then (without prejudice to the rights of other persons) the land shall vest accordingly and may be dealt with, and any proceedings may be taken in relation to it, without the title by escheat being found of record by inquisition or otherwise.