Legal 500
Falcon Chambers is pleased to announce that it has been ranked as the number one property litigation set in the 2014 Legal 500.
The editorial on Chambers states as follows:
“Falcon Chambers is ‘simply the leading real estate set', and no others ‘possess the same strength in depth'. It is unique in that it only specialises in property law, and its sector-specific focus is backed up by some of the best barristers at every level of call, including ‘eminent silks' and ‘excellent juniors who bring real focus to a case'. The members’ technical proficiency and understanding of the law is regularly singled out;‘they write or contribute to many of the text books relating to property law and are genuine experts”
In the past 12 months, Members of Chambers have acted in a number of significant cases across the full range of property litigation in Courts and Tribunals at all levels, including:
Commercial First Business Limited v Munday [2014] EWCA Civ 1296 (the availability of cross-securities under mortgages)
Tindall Cobham 1 Limited v Adda Hotels Limited [2014] EWCA Civ 1215 (Intra-group transfers of leases, guarantees and the Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995)
Kosta v Trustees of the Philimore Estate [2014] UKUT 319 (Lands Chamber) (Collective enfranchisement, relativity)
Regent Wealth v Wiggins [2014] EWCA Civ 1078 (Collective enfranchisement, effect of non-registration of notices)
McDonald v McDonald [2014] EWCA Civ 1049 (Mortgages, possession proceedings, private landlords and Article 8 defences)
Westbrook Dolphin Square v Friends Life [2014] EWHC 2433 (What is believed to be the largest-ever collective enfranchisement to date)
Manchester Ship Canal Company Limited v United Utilities Water Plc [2014] UKSC 40 (implied rights of discharge of water under the Water Industry Act 1991)
Dillard v F&C Commercial Property Holdings Ltd [2014] EWHC 1219 (QB) (Party walls)
Wood & Anor v Waddington [2014] EWHC 1358 (Ch) (rights of way, implied easements)
Black Ant Co Limited [2014] EWHC 1161 (Ch) (Mortgages, further advances)
Evans v Wimbledon and Putney Conservators [2014] EWCA Civ 940 (statutory rights of Conservators to grant easements to allow development)
Boots v Goldpine [2014], LTL19/06/14 (Court of Appeal decision on the operation of interim rents under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954)
Loose v Lynn Shellfish Limited [2014] EWCA Civ 846 (Presumed ancient grant of a shell fishery) Newham LBC v Ali [2014] EWCA Civ 676 (Planning and injunctions)
Church Commissioners for England, R v Hampshire CC [2014] EWCA Civ 634 (Town and village greens)
Best v Chief Land Registrar [2014] EWHC 1370 (Admin) (adverse possession and illegality)
Davies v Davies [2014] EWCA Civ 568 (proprietary estoppel)
Marks & Spencer v BNP Paribas [2014] EWCA Civ 603 (payment of rent upon the exercise of a tenant’s break option)
Friends Life v Siemens Hearing Instruments [2014] EWCA Civ 382 (formal requirements for break notices)
Fulham Broadway Trustees v Telefonica [2014] EWHC 1048 (Ch) (arbitration appeal on a rent review)
Daejan Properties v Griffin [2014] UKUT 206 (LC) (service charges, “historic neglect”)
Erimus Housing Limited v Barclays Wealth [2014] EWCA Civ 303 (tenancies at will)
First Great Western v Jones [2014] EWCA Civ 301 (lawfulness of a taxi permit scheme; rights of access) Innerspaces Self Storage Limited v Harding [2014] EWCA Civ 46 (construction of leases)
Topland Portfolio v Smiths News Trading [2014] EWCA Civ 18 (guarantors, the rule in Holmes v Bruskill)
Free Grammar School of John Lyon v Helman [2014] EWCA Civ 17 (collective enfranchisement, Land Registration Act 2002, transfers by operation of law on death or insolvency)
Sinclair Gardens Investments (Kensington) Limited v Rae [2014] UKUT 0079 (LT) (Enfranchisement, Sportelli in non-PCL areas)
Ninety Broomfield Road RTM Company Ltd v Triplerose Limited [2013] UKUT 0606 (LC) (The right to manage under Part 2 of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002; multi-block estates)
No.1 Deansgate (Residential) Ltd v No.1 Deansgate RTM [2013] UKUT 580 (LC) (The right to manage, meaning of “premises”)
Ham v Ham [2013] EWCA Civ 1301 (partnerships, dissolution, construction of partnership dissolution provisions)
Spencer v Taylor [2013] EWCA Civ 1600 (notices under section 21 of the Housing Act 1988)
Couper v Albion [2013] EWHC (Ch) 2993 (riparian and riverine rights, adverse possession, economic torts)
The Port of London Authority v Tower Bridge Yacht & Boat Co Ltd [2013] EWHC 3084 (Ch) (mooring rights)
A fuller list with additional commentary can be found on our Chambers news pages, here
Chambers continues to publish many of the leading textbooks in this area, and in the past twelve months members authored or co-authored a new edition of Hague on Leasehold Enfranchisement and an entirely new text on Residential and Commercial Service Charges. A new edition of Fisher and Lightwood on Mortgages is imminent. Additionally, members of Chambers regularly lecture on property law and related issues, as well as on questions of practice and procedure. Lectures given by members of Chambers can be found in the publications section here.
Nicholas Dowding QC
Nicholas Dowding QC has been awarded Property Litigation Silk of the Year. He is described as “out and away the best silk in the field”. In the last twelve months he acted for the successful party in Westbrook Dolphin Square Ltd v Friends Life Ltd [2014] EWHC 2433 (Ch), a long-running and large collective enfranchisement case. The case considered, inter alia, company schemes, the validity of notices, the meaning of “residential” purposes, and transactions at an undervalue. He also appeared in the recent, important, case in relation to the obligations of a tenant to pay rent upon exercising a break option, Marks & Spencer v BNP Paribas [2014] EWCA Civ 603. He is the author (with Kirk Reynolds QC) of Dilapidations, Law and Practice, currently in its fifth edition (September 2013).
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