Property

Serle Court has a long-established reputation for property dispute resolution. Clients value our commercial approach to handling a full range of complex disputes with efficiency and depth.

Our extensive property practice is complemented by our multi-disciplinary expertise across civil fraud, trusts, insolvency, company and charities work, together with our international experience.

Our barristers act in both contentious and non-contentious property matters for a wide range of clients, including high-net-worth individuals and families, large corporates, surveyors and local authorities.

We regularly appear in the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, High Court, County Court, the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber), the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) and the Upper Tribunal (Tax & Chancery), and represent clients in mediation and arbitration. We also have extensive experience in overseas jurisdictions and before the Privy Council.

Our property work includes:

• Developments and sale of land: Development agreements, joint ventures, contractual disputes, contracts for sale, options and pre-emption, overage, rights of light and other easements, modification of restrictive covenants, nuisance, injunctions, specific performance, issues with fractional investments, rights of refusal under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987, professional negligence (surveyors and solicitors).
• Land issues: Restrictive covenants, easements, boundary disputes, rights of light, registration of title, mortgages and charges, conveyancing disputes, licences, compulsory purchase, valuation issues, adverse possession, proprietary estoppel, co-ownership and beneficial interests and trusts of land matters.
• Commercial property: 1954 Act renewals, dilapidations, rent recovery, service charges, rent reviews, break notices, covenants, forfeiture, consents, mortgages and charges, possession actions, professional negligence, injunctions, and CVAs.
• Residential property: Possession actions, forfeiture, mortgages and charges, valuation issues, consents, assignments, breaches of covenant, lease extensions, collective enfranchisement and right to manage, commonhold and service charge disputes, professional negligence.
• Specialist property advice: canals and waterways, rights of light, property fraud, injunctive relief.

Our breadth of expertise is supported by members’ cross-disciplinary skills, ensuring seamless management of every aspect of a case without the need for additional counsel.

Serle Court members author and contribute to leading texts including Rights of Light: The Modern Law (LexisNexis), Restrictive Covenants and Freehold Land: A Practitioner’s Guide (LexisNexis); Megarry’s Manual of the Law of Real Property (Sweet & Maxwell); and Service Charges and Management (Sweet & Maxwell).