Author: William Lawrence

In Sackville v. Robertson [2018] EWHC 122 (Ch), the High Court considered a summary judgment application by a landlord arguing that a purported break notice served by an assignee of the tenant was invalid, as at the time of service of the break notice the assignment had not been registered at the Land Registry. The landlord (and claimant in the application) was known as Sackville. Robertson...

Looking at the case of Riva Properties and others v Foster + Partners If a firm of architects is engaged by a client to design a building to a certain budget, will the architects be negligent if their design is significantly in excess of that budget and no amount of “value-engineering” can bring the likely cost of the design down to within budget? In a nutshell, these...

Burrows Investments Ltd v Ward Homes Ltd [2017] EWCA Civ 1577. This article will highlight some of the Court of Appeal’s recent findings on “negotiating” damages in the case of Burrows Investments Ltd v Ward Homes Ltd [2017] EWCA Civ 1577. It also gives a useful reminder of the operation of the “ejusdem generis” principle.  Ejusdem generis means "of the same kind," so that where, say, a...

Dehavilland Studios Limited v Peries and Voysey Landlords who will be passing on costs to tenants via a service charge need to grapple with the question of how to deal with defective items. Is replacement or repair the better option and what considerations need to be taken into account? While not making new law, the recent appeal before the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) from a case in...

Is a developer obliged to sell in order to trigger an overage payment? Background In an option agreement with overage provisions, where the seller is entitled to overage once new dwellings are sold, is there an obligation on the buyer to sell the dwellings once built, thus triggering the entitlement to overage?  In a nutshell, this was the question that arose in the recent decision of Sparks...

A review of key issues from S Franses Limited v The Cavendish Hotel (London) Limited Most property professionals will be aware that business tenants are not ordinarily forced to leave their premises at the end of their lease terms. So long as the lease has not been contracted out of the security of tenure provisions of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, a tenant will, in...

The tricky issue of challenge to an expert's independence As litigators specialising in property disputes, we regularly instruct property professionals, usually surveyors from a variety of disciplines, to act as expert witnesses. In this note, we try to assess some relevant considerations to be taken into account when considering whether a property professional would have a conflict of interest in acting for a particular client. Before looking...

The court's approach to interpretation of contracts A lay person might be forgiven for thinking that a contract should “say what it means” and “mean what it says”.   If that is the case, surely it is right that contracts should be read literally?  At least that approach would give everyone certainty, wouldn’t it? Well, the Court of Appeal sees it rather differently and here’s an example. In...

Richard Anyamene answers some common questions that arise in disputes where property is owned and mortgaged by joint owners Question: I entered into an arrangement with a business partner a few years ago for the purchase of a mixed use investment property. We took out a joint mortgage and are registered as joint owners of the property with the Land Registry, but did not enter into any...

An overview of the procedure (Author: Richard Anyamene) At WH Lawrence, we deal with disputes involving recovery of possession of premises, and these often have a residential element – whether the premises have sole residential use, or are part of mixed use developments. Where residential occupiers are involved, there are a number of statutory hurdles and Civil Procedure Rules to consider before an owner can force...