Chancery

Property Law, Landlord & Tenant, General Chancery
Members of chambers have experience in advising on trusts, pensions, probate, wills and succession and administration of estates. Members also undertake drafting and represent clients in courts and tribunals.

Claire Andrews sits on the regulatory panel of the Association of Residential Managing Agents and is a tenancy deposit dispute adjudicator.

Members also advise in relation to disputes over land, especially if mortgage related.

We also have experience in:

Responding to applications by borrowers for suspension of a warrant of possession under section 36 of the Administration of Justice Act 1970 and applications for time orders under the Consumer Credit Act 1974;
Claims by occupiers that they have an overriding interest in the property because they are tenants of the borrower or have acquired a beneficial interest in the property whilst in actual occupation;
Obtaining and resisting winding-up orders;
Appearing on applications to set aside statutory demands and bankruptcy hearings.

Notable cases
Notable cases in which members of chambers have been involved include:
- Edwards v Kumarasamy [2016] UKSC 40 [2016] 3 WLR 310: Successful appeal to the Supreme Court from the Court of Appeal on the liability of an intermediate landlord with a long lease of a single flat to his assured shorthold tenant for disrepair in the paved area in front of a building. The paved area in front of the hall was not part of the “structure and exterior” of the hall. The intermediate landlord had an “interest” in the hall because of his leasehold easement. If the paved area had been part of the hall, the tenant would have been required to give notice of disrepair to the intermediate landlord: section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985;
- A v B Ltd (High Court, Ch Div, 2015): representing corporate defendant in a fraudulent misrepresentation trial concerning land in the Cayman islands; settled after 8 days of trial;
- Swift Advances plc v Ahmed [2015] EWHC 3265 (Ch): High Court set aside two trust deeds as transactions defrauding the creditor and intended to defeat mortgagee’s claim for possession;
- Swift 1st Ltd v Chief Land Registrar [2015] EWCA Civ 330: forged signature on mortgage deed; mortgagee entitled to indemnity from Chief Land Registrar through losses suffered through rectification of the register; claim not defeated by overriding interests of purported disponor;
- Swift 1st Ltd v Colin [2012] Ch. 206; [2012] 2 W.L.R. 186: the Land Registrar had refused to register a transfer of registered land; this High Court decision clarifies the power of an equitable chargee by deed to sell and transfer the land charged under the Law of Property Act 1925;
- Helden v Strathmore Ltd [2011] Bus LR 1592: formalities for entering mortgage; outside scope of s2 Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989;
- Bindra v Chopra [2009] EWCA Civ 203, [2009] WTLR 781: whether a trust deed created absolute interests in the property coupled with void testamentary dispositions, or only interests for life;
- Wragg and others v. Surrey County Council (2008) NPC 12; (2008) HLR 30: right of council employees to buy their homes;
- Polarpark Enterprises Inc v Allason [2007] 33 EG 92; [2007] WTLR 1829: revocation of a High Court order enforcing possession against an occupant under a terminated licence because the High Court had no enforcement jurisdiction, s3(1) of the Protection from Eviction Act 1977;
- Witkowska v Kaminski [2006] EWHC 1940 (Ch), [2007] 1 FLR 1547: whether Art. 12 of the EC Treaty, prohibiting discrimination on the ground of nationality, applied to the substantive law of succession to a deceased’s estate;
- First National Bank plc v Achampong [2003] EWCA Civ 487, [2004] 1 FCR 18, [2003] All ER (D) 08 (Apr): whether to order possession or sale of a property against a husband and wife on the ground of undue influence by the husband. The bank claimed an equitable charge over the husband’s interest.
Publications
Josephine Hayes and Julian Gun Cuninghame are co-authors of Atkins’ Court Forms on Landlord and Tenant, and Claire Andrews has also been a contributing author.