Residential Property

When a property is owned by two people as joint tenants (where the title to the property is owned by each of them, so that if one dies, the other inherits the property by survivorship), each of them is considered to be the legal owner of the property. A man...

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has now published its response to the recent consultation on proposals to criminalise squatting. The consultation paper, entitled ‘Options for dealing with squatting’ , received over 2,000 responses. As a first...

When a house is bought or sold, the prospective purchaser makes what are called ‘pre-contract enquiries’ in order to establish the exact details of the property being bought. These are normally in the form of a standard set of questions with any...

The UK has been proceeding apace in its attempts to develop ‘green’ energy, and wind turbines are appearing all over the country – including in such seemingly unlikely spots as beside the M25. However, no matter what their benefits as...

The recent case in which the court was asked to rule regarding a vacant flat that was part of a property sold at auction – the existence of which neither the vendor nor the purchaser was aware of until after the sale – has now been heard by the...

Noisy neighbours can be the bane of one’s existence, so it is no real surprise that a lesbian couple finally lost patience with their adjoining next-door neighbours after they had workmen carrying out extensive building work on their property for a...

Before you purchase a property, it is wise to make sure you are aware of the implications of any permitted uses of the land surrounding it. A recent case, in which the courts declined to prevent a landowner from carrying out activities which, although they...

A recent case illustrates that, when mistakes occur, it may not always be possible to put them right. A buyer and seller exchanged contracts on a flat, which was being sold by way of a long lease. This seems straightforward enough, but when the plans were...

The general principle that ‘the loser pays the costs of the winner’ does not apply to disputes brought before the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal (LVT). The maximum amount the LVT can require the loser to pay is £500, and only then in...

A fence put up by a Devon couple will cost them more than £20,000 in legal fees and re-erection costs after the court decided that it was built a few inches the wrong side of their boundary with their next-door neighbours. The court case was necessary...

Conveyancing is often thought to be a straightforward process, but the truth is very different. Problems with potential fraud, claims by lenders and title disputes are not infrequent. In order to protect consumers, the Law Society launched, in January 2011,...

The Government has suggested that councils in rural areas consider changing their planning policies to allow unused farm buildings to be converted to use for residential purposes, rather than insisting that they only be used as farm buildings. This idea is...

An attempt by campaigners to prevent the demolition of a neo-Georgian building by creating a conservation area was recently defeated , following a challenge by the property company that wished to develop the site. The council failed to prevent the...

A recent court decision illustrates that where ownership of land changes, rights conferred by covenants over neighbouring land are not necessarily passed on to the new owners. In this case, the former owners of a house had sold part of their garden for...

When the terms of a house building contract exclude any liability for losses incurred by the client on account of defective works, the client has no redress under a general duty of care. This was the decision of the Court of Appeal in a recent case...

When a person continues to use land they do not own over a long period of time, they may acquire an easement (a legal right to use the land). Recently, the Court of Appeal considered the extent of the rights created by easements. The case arose because of...

Provisions introduced on 6 April 2007 under the Housing Act 2004 made it a requirement that landlords protect their tenants’ deposits using an authorised Tenancy Deposit Scheme, if they have let the property on an assured shorthold tenancy. The rules...

A man who built a house which appeared from the outside to be a barn has lost his battle to obtain a certificate of lawful use for the property. The man originally obtained planning permission to build a barn. He then constructed a fully-equipped...

The High Court has confirmed the principle that where a lease for a dwelling is held by two tenants, either tenant can give a valid notice to terminate the tenancy. The effect of such a notice is that both tenants will be required to vacate the premises...

When the owner of a building intends to carry out work covered by the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 , the owner of an adjoining building has the right to request security from the owner planning the work where this involves a risk to their property. This is so...

An ongoing dispute between a pensioner and her local authority has demonstrated the importance of considering the impact of planning laws when carrying out work on listed buildings. Sheila New, 72, painted the front of her house a light blue colour in 2008....

A dispute between neighbours over whether or not a brook marked the boundary between their properties may well be aired in the Supreme Court after the couple who lost the argument in the Court of Appeal was given permission to appeal against the decision. ...

If something was described to you as a floating structure moored in a river, you would be forgiven for assuming that what was being described was a boat – but it isn’t necessarily so, as a Norfolk couple found. Using a barge as a base, they...

A builder who entered the ‘buy to let’ market after acting on a negligent valuation has been awarded more than £70,000 by the court . He intended to buy a property to let it out and engaged a firm of surveyors to value the property and to...

A poorly-drafted plan and a refusal to compromise have led to an argument over the boundary between two rural properties reaching the Court of Appeal . The argument between the owners of adjacent land arose because there was a brook and a fence that were...