ESCROW

ESCROW

If an instrument is delivered to take effect on the happening of a specified event or upon condition that it is not to be operative until some condition is performed pending the happening of that event or the performance of the condition the instrument is called an escrow.

A deed – after it is written and signed and /or sealed - is required to be delivered to the person in whose favour it is executed.

If not delivered all the rest is to no purpose.

A deed takes effect not from the date it bears but from the date of delivery.

Delivery signifies the handing over of something, for instance, land or an intangible interest in it which could not by physically transferred by hand as a chattel could do.

Date:

Where a deed bears no date – that must be construed as delivery.

But if the deed bears a sensible date – it must be the date of that deed and not that of the delivery.

In an attempted delivery- three possibilities

1)   No deed may be delivered - unconditionally

2)   No deed may be delivered – subject to a certain condition being complied with, until which time the grantor may revoke or reverse the deed. (If this occurs the document is not a deed, it is a nullity)

3)   The deed may be delivered subject to certain conditions or the happening of some event but without any overriding power in the grantor to recall the deed.

This is known as ‘escrow’