News & Publications
Seek help before you help yourself
December 20th, 2013
It has been a long been established in what came to be known as the ‘Hildebrand Rules’ (Hildebrand v Hildebrand [1992] 1 FLR 244) that the family courts will not penalise either spouse for secretly obtaining, taking and copying each other’s documents in financial remedy proceedings – provided they not been taken by force – […]
A comment on the decision in Mitchell v NGN
December 15th, 2013
Definitive guidance from the Court of Appeal on the post-Jackson era of litigation – a comment on the decision in Mitchell v NGN. The Court Appeal has sent out a very clear message in the decision in Mitchell v News Group News Papers [2013] EWCA Civ 1537 that the courts will take a strict approach […]
MacGregor v B M Samuels Finance Group Plc [2013] UKUT 471 (LC)
October 31st, 2013
How far does the jurisdiction of the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) extend when dealing with service charge disputes? A comment on the decision in MacGregor v B M Samuels Finance Group Plc [2013] UKUT 471 (LC). The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) recently gave a ruling limiting the First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) (“the Tribunal”)’s jurisdiction […]
Don’t be coerced into paying service charges…
September 21st, 2013
Being a residential leaseholder, you are likely to be asked to pay service charges by your landlord on your regular basis. You may consider the service charges to be too high and you should be aware that when you receive a service charge bill from your landlord, you do not necessarily have to accept the […]
Residential leasehold properties – clarification on the consultation requirements for qualifying works
September 16th, 2013
Phillips v Francis [2012] EWHC 3650 (Ch) This recent decision in the High Court updates the law on the consultation requirements for landlords on qualifying works for the purposes of Section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 (‘the Act’). Prior to this decision, it was considered that Section 20 of the Act only […]
Daejan v Benson [2013] UKSC 14
September 7th, 2013
The recent decision in Daejan v Benson in the Supreme Court has established the scope of the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal’s (LVT) jurisdiction to dispense with the consultation requirements under section 20(1) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 (the Act) and set the principles on how that jurisdiction should be exercised. Under the Act, a […]
Important ruling on tenancy deposits in the Court of Appeal
July 17th, 2013
On 14 June 2013, the Court of Appeal handed down an important decision in Superstrike Limited v Marino Rodrigues [2013] clarifying the position in respect of deposits held on tenancy agreements pre-dating 6 April 2007, but which have subsequently become periodic tenancies. This case concerned a tenancy agreement granted by the landlord for a period […]