Introduction
Welcome to the March 2022 edition of the Property Newsletter from Gatehouse Chambers, with a Guest Editor this issue – Laura Tweedy. I have been a member of the Property team at Gatehouse for some 14 years and practice in all things real estate litigation, with a particular passion for landlord and tenant. I am very happy to be stepping in for Carl while he apres ski’s around Whistler!
Our team is heading off to MIPIM 2022 and we would love to see you there, so please get in touch so we can meet up in the sun!
This month we have three articles; one from Carl Brewin on recent decisions in relation to rent payment orders, another by John de Waal KC on his reported High Court case, Prime London Holdings 11 Ltd v Thurloe Lodge Ltd regarding the Access to Neighbouring Land Act 1992, and one from Michael Maris on Occupation Rent.
Our new Practice Manager in the Property Team, Zina Avili, spins the wheel of questions for us so we can get to know her a little better. Zina joins James Duncan-Hartill, Patrick Sarson and Claire Gallacher as a Practice Manager for the Property Team. Their details can be found at the bottom of the newsletter.
Activity report – a selection of what some of us have been up to this month
- John de Waal KC, Katrina Mather and William Golightly are preparing for the trial next month of Valley View Health Centre v NHS Property Services Ltd, a test case concerning services charges levied by NHSPS upon GPs surgeries and one of The Lawyer’s top 20 cases of 2022.
- Lina Mattsson has been preparing for her first solo performance in the Court of Appeal. Exciting and terrifying in equal measures. She has also had another month of numerous boundary disputes, mixed up with some adverse possession and prescriptive easements. One regarding ownership (or not, as the case may be) of the buttresses in an old stone wall has been particularity interesting.
- This month Jamal Demachkie had another interesting trial on business tenancy renewals under the ’54 Act, which turned on whether group companies that acquire subsidiary landlords are subject to the 5-year bar on opposing renewal under ground (g). (Answer, no they are not!)
- Peter Petts has been advising on solicitors’ negligence alleged to have caused a developer losses in the region of £800k, raising interesting points on causation.
- Jaysen Sharpe was successful in defeating a public sector equality duty defence and obtained the variation of a suspended possession order to an outright order on mandatory ground 7A, where the tenancy pre-dated the ground 7A and contained both restrictions and assurances as to the grounds that landlord would seek possession under.
- James Hall has been advising on a residential off-plan development gone wrong and also advising on Norwich Pharmacal and Bankers Trust applications in relation to a property fraud (a la Dreamvar). His talk on rectification and aggregation at the PNLA online conference has also gone live.
- Following the judgment in LB Barking & Dagenham v Persons Unknown in the Court of Appeal, Steven Woolf has been advising many of his local authority and commercial property-owning clients on applying for protective preventative injunctions.
- Brie Steven-Hoare QC’s month has featured complex multi party development agreements, options, overage, an easement or three and a touch of rectification of both contracts and deeds. A few mediations which had both wet and dry features added a choice to get her welly boots out.
- Andrew Skelly successfully resisted an application to amend Particulars of Claim a few weeks before trial, in claim which started in 2017, to plead a recent purported assignment of the underlying cause of action. This reduced the likely quantum significantly and, consequently, the Claimant accepted a Part 36 Offer that had been made in 2017. Following up from last month: the landlord was successful in its appeal against a decision that Covid ‘ringfenced’ arrears should be stayed pending the introduction of the government’s promised arbitration scheme.
- Laura Tweedy has been busily involving herself with a rights to light matter and a tenancy obtained by deception. She has also found herself facing a couple of (pretty useless) Equality Act defences to claims for possession. She is looking forward to three child-free nights in the South of France cleverly disguised as something called “MIPIM”.
- Cameron Stocks had a TOLATA heavy month with disputes between former partners, friends and siblings. When not wrapping his head around trusts of land, Cameron has been dealing with consequentials following a successful 5-day boundary dispute in Bournemouth before heading off for a bit of winter sun (and rain!) in Madeira.
Events
The Property Team continue to host their series of Brews on Zoom, an informal chat that lets you in to our team’s thoughts and discussion surrounding current issues and practical challenges practitioners and their clients are facing. Wandering children and/or pets are very welcome…bring your own hot drink!
Wednesday, 24 March 2022
Behind the Façade Series Webinar: Identification of the key technical issues and the evidence needed
Featuring David Pliener and Emma Hynes
24 and 25 March 2022
Brie Stevens-Hoare KC, Peter Petts and Jamal Demachkie will all be speaking at the PLA Annual Conference in Keble College, Oxford on 24-25 March and would love to see you there.
Professional Negligence & Liability Update ‘Discovery’ (online conference)
James Hall is featured on an esteemed panel of speakers as part of an online conference for the Professional Negligence Lawyers Association, which is now available to stream and download via the PNLA’s website.
J2J Programme
We are in the process of setting up dates for our J2J Laying the Foundations Series so please get in touch with the team if you would like to register your interest.
For previous J2J seminars, see here.
Gatehouse Chambers on Demand
You can catch up on our previous webinars and Brews by visiting the insights page on our website or click the links below:
Featuring Daniel Gatty, Laura Tweedy, Cameron Stocks and Adam Smith-Roberts
Featuring Daniel Gatty, Jonathan Titmuss, Catherine Piercy and Adam Smith-Roberts
Gatehouse Chambers #Brew: Access to Neighbour Land Act 1992
Featuring Faisel Sadiq and Adam Smith-Roberts
Rent repayment orders – Practical guidance on reasonable excuse and assessment of awards following Aytan v Moore and others [2021] UKUT 27 (LC)
Carl Brewin summarises some recent decisions in relation to rent payment orders.
Read his latest article here.
Prime London Holdings 11 Ltd v Thurloe Lodge Ltd
Article by John de Waal KC who acted for the successful Claimant in Prime London Holdings 11 Ltd v Thurloe Lodge Ltd [2022] EWHC 3030 (Ch).
Read here.
Do you have to be ousted to succeed in a claim for occupation rent? Bailey v Dixon [2021] EWHC 2971 (QB)
This appeal concerned whether or not occupation rent was payable to the joint owner of a property who had left that property following the breakdown of her relationship with the other joint owner.
Read the article by Michael Maris here.
Did you see? You may have missed...
Shah v Power [2022] EWHC 209 (QB), [2022] All ER (D) 68 (Feb)
The Party Wall etc. Act 1996 – notice – dispute – jurisdiction
Read Lina Mattsson‘s case summary here.
“Gatehouse Chambers Unrobed” – get to know us better
Each month, a member of our team has to spin ‘the Wheel of Questions’ and answer the first three questions that come up. This month, Zina Avili tried her luck with the wheel.
Q – Where do you most hope to visit?
A – New York!
Q – What are you currently reading?
A – Fake Law: The Truth About Justice in an Age of Lies by The Secret Barrister
Q – If you could spend a day in someone else’s shoes whose would they be?
A – Anna Wintour! (or Carrie Bradshaw… if she was real!)
Want to try for yourself?
Click on the wheel below!
Contact us
If you would like to discuss any of the topics in this newsletter, please contact a member of our Practice Management Team:
James Duncan-Hartill, Practice Director
Patrick Sarson, Practice Manager
Claire Gallacher, Practice Manager
Zina Avili, Practice Manager
To find out more about our Property Team and their work, visit the property page on our website. To view a copy of our privacy statement, please click here.
This edition of the property newsletter was edited by Laura Tweedy. Comments or queries about this newsletter? Please get in touch with her!
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