Property & Chancery

13 KBW has a team of barristers specialising in Property and Chancery law, whose particular specialisms are shown below. In order to improve our service, we now have an integrated IT and telecommunications system that includes the latest edition of Meridian specialist software. We like to take a commercial approach by combining prompt action with practical advice. We are proud of our level of service to clients, and are in the process of preparing for the QualityMark assessment.

We provide a prompt service of high quality, not just in our traditional role as advocates, but also in giving such advice and support to our professional clients as may be necessary. We take particular pride in our approachability. The team adopts a corporate approach for the benefit of our professional clients. Team members assist each other by standing in when occasion demands, and discussing interesting points of law.

Property disputes often demand immediate attention and the making of interlocutory applications. We are happy to be consulted at short notice, either in London or Oxford. We are also happy to act as legal assessors to Arbitrators and to take instructions from surveyors (direct access).

We offer a service in property and general chancery work comprising:

Real Property

  • Vendor and purchaser disputes
  • Commercial mortgages
  • Restrictive covenants and easements
  • General conveyancing problems

Landlord and Tenant

  • Business leases
  • Rent Reviews, arbitrations and legal assessors to arbitrators
  • Leasehold enfranchisement in all its variants
  • Service Charge Disputes
  • Residential leases

Chancery Remedies

  • Injunctions, including search orders & freezing injunctions
  • Specific performance
  • Rectification
  • Rescission
  • Accounts
  • Constructive Trusts, Proprietary Estoppel and restitution

Other areas

  • Professional negligence, i.e .economic loss caused by negligence of lawyers, surveyors, valuers, architects, engineers, etc.
  • Partnership disputes
  • Franchise and solus agreements
  • Passing off and similar problem

Examples of the matters that we are handling include advising on:

remedies for a tenant where the new landlord of a shopping centre goes into occupation of all other units with a resultant drop in passing trade.

the lease renewal of a public house owned by a brewery whose new owners require managed houses rather than tenancies.

compensation for purported tenants' improvements under Part 1 of the Landlord & Tenant Act 1927, revolving around whether the tenant, a Government Department, carried on a 'trade or business' so as to qualify under the Act.

Claims of solicitors' negligence: for failure to negotiate favourable provisions on behalf of the landlord into the lease of substantial commercial premises: for failure to exercise an option to purchase commercial premises.

PROPERTY & CHANCERY TEAM

Practice Leader: Robert Lamb 1973

The Practice comprises the following Counsel (their CVs can be accessed by selecting the Counsel concerned):

We understand the importance of selecting the right individual, both for you and your client. If you have any queries, we would urge you to discuss your case with our senior clerk, Kevin Kelly.

Click here for Service Charges: summary of tenants' rights and obligations