News
Losing your right to a new lease
March 5th, 2018
Leaseholders who have owned residential flats for more than two years are entitled to ask the landlord to extend their existing lease by a period of 90 years in return for the payment of a premium, provided certain exclusions do not apply. A leaseholder’s entitlement comes from Chapter II of the Leaseholder Reform, Housing and […]
How long is too long: Part 1
February 12th, 2018
The Limitation Act 1980 (‘the Act’) sets out the period of time within which a person must bring a claim. The basic rule, enshrined in the Act, is that claims founded in tort (except for personal injury claims) and claims founded in simple contract must be commenced within six years of the date on which […]
No change to the status quo
January 31st, 2018
The Court of Appeal, in the case of Mundy v Trustees of the Sloane Stanley Estate [2018] EWCA Civ 35, delivered a much anticipated judgment on 24 January 2018 in respect of the method of valuing the premium payable by leaseholders for a lease extension pursuant to the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act […]
Tough times for landlords
September 25th, 2017
Landlords have come under increasing pressure, and this pressure has been ramping up over the last few months with no end in sight. These truly has been a couple of years to forget for landlords and in this article, we consider some of the burdens being placed on landlords and the possible effects of these. […]
New Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims
September 24th, 2017
On 1 October 2017, the Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims (‘the Protocol’) comes into force. The Protocol has the potential to have a large impact on businesses when it comes to recovering debts and will substantially increase the administrative steps and costs a business will have to go through when recovering debts from individuals. What […]
The recovery of costs in small claims cases
April 21st, 2017
CPR rule 27.14 deals with the recovery of costs on the small claims track. The starting point is that the court may not make an order for costs, except for fixed costs and court fees, unless the opposing party has behaved unreasonably. The question of what constitutes unreasonableness, therefore, arises fairly often in small claims […]
Divorce procedure update
November 7th, 2016
Thum v Thum (2016) EWHC 2634 (Fam) On 21st October Mr Justice Mostyn, at the Family Division of the High Court, considered whether a wife had unreasonably delayed serving her divorce petition on her husband. The husband claimed that his wife had done so with the aim of achieving a tactical advantage. Why so? The […]
What is unreasonableness and how can I recover costs in the Tribunal
November 4th, 2016
A commentary on Willow Court Management Company (1985) Limited v Alexander [2016] UKUT 0290 (LC) and the recovery of costs in the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) The power of a Tribunal to award costs is governed by the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 (‘the Act’), which provides at section 29 that the costs of […]
Long leases and Air BnB
November 2nd, 2016
Given the rise of short-term lets, particularly as a result of the growing popularity of platforms such as AirBnB, the judgment of HHJ Stuart Brigg in Nemcova v Fairfield Rents Limited [2016] UKUT 303 (LC) is one of some interest. The facts of this dispute were fairly straightforward. The tenant had admitted to letting her […]
To whom does art belong?
January 13th, 2016
There is an age old question that remains unanswered: does art belong to the artist who created it; to the person who has bought it; or to everyone? In the matter of The Creative Foundation v Dreamland Leisure Limited and others [2015], the High Court had to answer a similar – although not quite as […]