Every now and then a judicial decision comes along which is so eye-wateringly wrong, in its consequences if not in its reasoning, that all well-intentioned people in the relevant field just know it will have to be corrected in due course either by the Court of Appeal or Parliament, and resolve with a sigh that…

The Panama Papers have taught us all, if we didn’t know already, about the many and various ways in which property can be ‘owned’ by parties whose very existence you would never suspect from the Land Registry – or from any public record for that matter. Lawyers call this the ‘beneficial’ interest but most would…

We are seeing an increasing number of claims lately in the area of newly built flats. Typically these are purchased off-plan, and claims where the purchaser is not happy when he first sets eyes on the finished product have always been common enough. A closely related and topical issue is the status of deposits. Lately,…

Did King Henry VIII really stand on his eponymous mound in Richmond Park to watch for the rocket from the Tower of London which told him that Anne Boleyn had been cleared out of the way and he was free to marry Jane Seymour? Well, probably not. It doesn’t do for royalty to appear too…

Few things outrage tenants more than learning that their landlord is raking in a commission on the insurance he is arranging for them, which (they naturally tend to believe) is in turn reflected in the size of the insurance premium they are being asked to pay, often through a service charge. After residential tenants first…

In the commercial world hard choices are required from time to time and provided the risks involved in making them are properly understood they may be the right choices. This blog discusses legal obligations and remedies, and in particular whether it really matters if there is a breach if it is possible to neutralise, or…

Every now and then a property law decision comes along which could actually change society. The recent Upper Tribunal one in Nemcova –v- Fairfield Rents is one such. The question for the tribunal was simple enough: is a covenant to use a flat only as a private residence breached by someone who allows her own…