Residential Property

Pursuing boundary disputes through the courts can be a very costly and stressful exercise. The parties usually end up incurring legal costs disproportionate to the value of the land itself and often end up falling out irretrievably with their neighbour.  In the light of this a new protocol, known as the Protocol for Disputes between […]

Service charges will be familiar to most people holding flats or houses under a long lease.  A leasehold owner owes various obligations to the freeholder (or a management company, where present) as set out in the lease including paying ground rent, contributing towards the insurance of a multi-occupier building and paying service charge, generally, the […]

So, you’ve paid your deposit, collected the keys and moved into your lovely new home. What to do first? Install that white picket fence you’ve always wanted? Maybe buy some chickens to give you some eggs for your Sunday morning soldiers? Or fit a few security cameras around your house to keep an eye on […]

The law of property ownership can be a study in contradictions. On the one hand, almost everyone will rent or buy property in some way during their lives. On the other, the law itself often relies on fairly arcane tenets and distinctions going back hundreds of years. One of the major distinctions the law draws […]

You’ve just bought a house with the view you always wanted and every day starts with the beautiful sweeping vista. Now fast forward a few years and your neighbour decides to plant a few trees. Not any species of tree however, but fast growing, potentially enormous Leylandii that eclipse the once splendid view so dear […]

If A enters into a contract on behalf of A and B but A does not have B’s authority, is the contract still valid?  This was the question which the Court of Appeal had to consider in the recent case of Marlbray Limited v Laditi and another. Mr and Mrs Laditi attended a sales fair […]

Adverse possession is a principle of property law that applies to both residential and commercial property. It is the legal basis on which ‘squatters rights’ can be claimed for land that is occupied by somebody who is not the legal owner of the same. In order to claim adverse possession of the land in question […]

At one point or another, the unfortunate amongst us, have had to put up with noisy neighbours. In the recent case of Cocking -v- Eacott, the noisy neighbour in question was a pet terrier owned by Ms Eacott. Ms Eacott’s neighbours, Mr & Mrs Cocking, complained about the excessive barking of her dog and brought […]

Time is always an important factor in contractual relationships but when time is ‘of the essence’, it becomes critical. Does it matter? ‘Of the essence’ means that something is extremely important – therefore when time is expressed to be ‘of the essence’, it is vital that deadlines are met. You may think that surely it […]

Following the introduction of Energy Performance Certificates (EPC’s) on 1 August 2007, the property market has been slow to react to the results shown by them. With this in mind, the Energy Act 2011 obliges the Government to bring into force measures to improve the energy efficiency of both non-domestic and domestic properties. The easiest way […]

As of 1 October the procedure for giving a tenant notice under an Assured Shorthold Tenancy has been radically changed. This is a result the Deregulation Act 2015, which has previously altered the Tenancy Deposit position once before. The somewhat vague name of the Act, which deals with a wide variety of subjects, is likely to […]

You cannot fail to have noticed the LGBT movement in recent weeks. The Pride March in London, the major US Supreme Court decision to give same-sex couples the nationwide right to marry and social media sites, like Facebook, awash with rainbow tinted profile pictures. Many may feel that this wave of support is long overdue […]