News and Articles

New initiative – the HMCTS monthly bulletin

It is a fast-moving world, and property litigation is at the cutting edge of change, according to Martin Edwards, Chair of the Property Litigation Association, and Mathew Ditchburn, Chair of the PLA’s Law Reform Committee.

The PLA Law Reform Committee has had meetings with HMCTS in respect of their wide-ranging reform programme. Below is a link that contains both a video link to a recent roadshow event and also a pdf of a Reform Update dated May 2018

Tom Morris analyses and discusses the law of sewers and drains by reference to the law of easements and the statutes relating to sewerage.

In Reedbase v Fattal [2018] EWCA 840, an important decision for landlords and their advisers, the Court of Appeal explained how and when a landlord would need to repeat its statutory consultation if the works carried out changed from the original programme consulted on.

The answer to the question who owns the airspace above a building or the subsoil below is usually clear cut in relation to freehold land but often less clear in the case of leaseholds.

Since becoming Chair of the Property Bar Association, I’ve really been struck by the sheer hard work which is put in by so many people to enable the PBA and the PLA to serve their members. Whether it’s organising seminars or socials, guarding the bank accounts, responding to consultations or marking student essays, members of both Associations’ committees and others give up hours of their time for the good of other professionals.

In this paper, Nic Taggart reviews the basic principles of partnership law as they relate to partners holding real estate as partnership property. 

Ever since the tragic Grenfell fire, landlords of high-rise apartment blocks have understandably been quick to address potential fire risks that affect their buildings.

The case of Rotrust Nominees Ltd v Hautford Ltd confirms that there is no general proposition that a landlord will be entitled to refuse consent to assign, or alter, or change the planning use of the demised premises on grounds of feared enfranchisement and the consequent loss of the landlord’s interest under the Leasehold Reform Act 1967.