Neil deals with all types of property dispute including: commercial and residential landlord and tenant problems of all kinds (e.g. lease renewals, possession claims, forfeiture, dilapidation claims, rent reviews, service charge issues); TOLATA co-ownership cases; proprietary estoppel and constructive/resulting trust claims; alteration and rectification of the register; LPA receivers; advising on the acquisition of easements and claims for interference with easements; mortgage claims including mortgage fraud cases; and disputes between neighbouring owners over boundaries, adverse possession or duties of care. His experience also extends to Chancery matters where these intersect with property issues, for example in relation to contested wills, Inheritance Act claims, trust issues and claims for specific performance.

Recent Cases

• Advising on claims for breach of duties of care and interference with the easement of support where lack of repair to a neighbouring property caused damage to the client’s home.
• Advising on whether very significant repairs and maintenance to a block of flats fell within the service charge provisions of the leases, and related issues.
• Obtaining possession of premises for a charity involving allegations of breaches of charitable purposes.
• Advising on a case concerning the alleged gift of a house to a grandson, and issues of forgery.
• Advising on and appearing at trial in a matter concerning the scope of a right of way, duties of care, boundaries and allegations of nuisance.
• Advising on claims of noise nuisance and breach of covenant.
• Advising and representing clients claiming an interest in a property registered in the names of others.
• Advising on a claim to cancel a unilateral notice turning on the disputed right to forfeit a deposit of £700,000.
• Advising on rights of drainage over agricultural land.
• Advising on whether there are public rights of way over an unadopted road, and upon prescriptive rights.
• Advising on the subsistence of unregistered rights of way over farmland.
• Advising on an application to discharge a restrictive covenant under s84 LPA 1925.
• Advising on settlement and insurance positions in a negligence claim involving a restrictive covenant prohibiting the construction of a second residence.
• Advising on breach of user covenants in a commercial lease and sub-lease.
• Advising on the enforceability and effect of a commission agreement to pay a fee in the event of a planning outcome, and overage provisions.
• Advising on injunctions for trespass in a commercial context and availability of an order for access to neighbouring land in novel circumstances.
• Advising on claims by a tenant for damage caused by ineffective external drainage and/or surcharging of a public sewer.
• Advising on whether an express grant of a right of way extended to permitting access to land adjoining the dominant tenement.
• Advising on issues arising from property “guardians” refusing to vacate premises they were safe-guarding.