News and Articles

Torquil Gyngell is a fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and an accredited mediator

Some nice member of the PLA was kind enough to tell the Legal 500 this year that Joanne is ‘undoubtedly one of the leading property silks, who is destined for the top.’ That destiny is now fulfilled, “the top” clearly meaning the Chairmanship of the PLA Autumn Training Day. She is thrilled to have reached these dizzy heights.

Presentation

The PLA have conducted a survey of its members, cost lawyers and PBA members to gauge opinion on the recent Jackson Cost Budgeting reforms. The survey suggests a general dissatisfaction with the reforms and how the reforms have been implemented.

The Land Registration Act 2002 (“the LRA 2002”) came into force 11 years ago. After 152 years of “the land registration project” over 80% of the land in England and Wales is registered. The Law Commissioner responsible for property projects, Professor Elizabeth Cooke, recently said: "the purpose of title registration is to guarantee title"

Tenants should avoid conditional break clauses if they can.

In Target Holdings Ltd v Redferns [1996] 1 AC 421, the House of Lords proceeded on the basis, first, that the money given by the finance company lender to its solicitors was “to be held on a bare trust and transferred to the mortgagor once the property had been purchased and charged to (it)” and, secondly, that the payment away of some of the majority of that money “before the prospective mortgagor had purchased the property” and “without having received any charge on the property” amounted to a breach of trust. This form of liability is not fault-based.

The legislation limits residential service charge recovery unless there is the requisite consultation before qualifying works.

Off the starting blocks we assume the covenant is enforceable, but it is necessary to check the running of the benefit and burden meticulously.

An Englishwoman’s home is not her castle.